The very first Nameless Detective book, written in 1971Once upon a time, there was a young author by the name of Bill Pronzini. The year was 1969, and he wrote a short story called “The Snatch” for Alfred Hitchcock Magazine. Unbeknownst to most of the readers of that story, a star was about to be born. In 1971, Pronzini developed the story into a full-length novel of the same name. He introduced a detective who was never referred to by name. And thus, the Nameless Detective was born, a character...

Review from Badelynge.The Snatch is a very early Bill Pronzini novel from 1971 and the very first of his long running Nameless Detective series. And it's a very decent beginning. Pronzini may have been just starting out on his longer form career but he'd already gone some way to developing his skills through his short stories, this book being a reworking of one such. Don't be fooled by the pedestrian seeming set up to the plot, what looks like a routine kidnapping and ransom soon manages to thro...

The first "Nameless Detective" wasn't written in the pulp/noir heyday of the '40's and '50's, but in the early '70's. But, it easily could have been written thirty years earlier. The prolific Pronzini and his "Nameless" series is still going 40 years later. Will be interesting to continue along with this series, how his clients don't ask his name, we never will hear his name...interesting touch.With our PI being a pulp collector....just adds to the wonderful feel of a noir mystery. Great stuff.

Slow and steady start to a series I have never read before. Pronzini is highly regarded and I thought I would try to find out why. This is clearly a man who wears his love of the pulps on his sleeve going as far as having out nameless PI collect old magazines. The central kidnapping and murder is actually fairly weak. The detective does a little bit of detecting but only after several clues have walked right up to him and introduced themselves. The denouement is also fairly meh with the baddie r...

Having recently finished all of Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder mysteries, I’ve been searching for another detective with a long-running series of novels. Then one day it occurred to me, why not read what Lawrence Block once called the most underrated detective series?: the Nameless Detective novels of Bill Pronzini.Why Nameless? Well, some people think its because Pronzini is a native of San Francisco, and his detective—middle-aged, running to fat—is reminiscent of the Continental Op, Dashiell Ha...

: THE SNATCH by Bill Pronzini - I’ve had books from Pronzini’s “Nameless Detective” series on my “to read” list for year and years; so long, in fact, that I had forgotten any of the specifics of how/why it got on my radar and why the people who had recommended it to me thought it was worth recommending. This is the first novel in the series, which I bring up because I’ve noticed that a lot of notable crime/detective series take a few volumes to find their stride: so, when I say that I liked it,

I can see the elements that were once innovative but have since been washed smooth by time. It does, however, establish a likable hero well worth following over the next forty-plus years.

The plot is ridiculous. The mood and tone are great. So this winds up being a bit of a mixed bag. Fun, readable, but with a storyline that's either entirely random (a solution appears!) or comically over the top. More enjoyable is the self-referential play with what it means to be a private detective.There's enough in here that I would consider reading more by this author. Maybe his handling of plot gets better with time.

Really tight fast easy read. Snatch is the first nameless Detective novel. It pays homage to so many of the past detectives and yet still stands on its own quite nicely. Loved that the detective is a fan of pulps. The story of a kidnapping gone wrong is great. It is something that could have gone horribly wrong but does not here as Pronzini masterfully sails the seas of an old plot device that he gives a pretty fresh spin to. I think that it plays well even today.

The Snatch is the first "Nameless" book by Bill Pronzini. I was able to ask the ILL to track this book down, it is very old (1971) and I appreciate this library department tracking it down. The book holds up well today. It is the story of a wealthy family whose nine year old son is kidnapped. Nameless, who we find out in later books is named Bill, is hired to handle the money transfer. Naturally something goes wrong. This first book shows Nameless as a competent trustworthy detective. This was a...

Bill Pronzini is a very prolific author with 40 some odd books in this series. The "Nameless Detective" series is obviously very popular to sustain it for 40 years which is why I wanted to start with book #1. Pronzini's talent as an author is quite evident in his descriptive prose detailing his San Francisco area locals and I liked his "Nameless" detective. My problem with "Snatch" was it's slow pace. How slow was it? It was so slow your 90 year old grandmother bumped her grocery cart into the p...

I figured if I was to ever earn a detective/crime readers merit badge I was going to have to read at least one Pronzini or else I was going to be seriously challenged. So I did.So, lets cut to the chase. Is he good? I going to stick my neck out, but not to far, and say unquestionably.So, What's his detective DNA like? OK, I'm going say Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald.Why? Cause, he has that lean muscular prose thing, doesn't waste a lot of words and then all of a sudden, like he's got a lot...

Overall it was a decent read, not a lot of fleshing out of any characters or much twistiness to the plot, but still interesting. SOme of the interactions with the female characters have not aged really well, but they're downright progressive if compared to Raymond Chandler. (Pronzini is a breast man).

Is he a hero?Has he got the guts and flair to be a good P.I?Is he too honest, too sensitive and too ethical?Is he affected too easily by real corruption and human misery?Will he find the snatched boy and solve the case?Only time will tell! An exquisite novel of pulp noir fiction from a author who is underrated and a masterful writer. The "nameless detective" the main protagonist in this story who really has not been given a name by Bill is a very human P.I who has the only vice of smoking too mu...

Here is a list of all the books (in order) Happy Reading.1971 The Snatch Random House 1973 The Vanished Random House 1973 Undercurrents Random House 1977 Blowback Ramdom House 1978 Twospot Putman 1980 Laybrinth St. Martin's Press 1980 A Killing In Xanadu Waves Press 1981 Hoodwinked St. Martin's Press 1982 Scattershot St. Martin's Press 1982 Dragonfire St. Martin's Press 1983 Bindlestiff St. Martin's Press 1983 Casefile St. Martin's Press 1984 Quicksilver St. Martin's Press 1984 Night...

This was exactly what I wanted it to be. A great noir-esque detective story with a caring protagonist just trying to do his best, for himself and his clients. Flavors of 40's pulp set firmly in a "that time has passed" 70's.I think I shall be following Nameless through very many more adventures.

Among the authors of crime fiction who have, over their careers, divided their energies between their series novels and their standalones, the standalones are almost always the better work. I don't know what that should be, but it is. I'm a big fan of Bill Pronzini's BLUE LONESOME and A WASTELAND OF STRANGERS, among others, but his Nameless novels disappoint me almost as much as John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels do in comparison to his robust standalones like DEEP LOW TIDE and A FLASH OF G...

SNATCH (PI, “Nameless,” San Francisco/Bay Area, Cont) – VGPronzini, Bill – 1st in seriesRandom House, 1971, US Hardcover, ISBN: 0394472268First Sentence: Tamarack Drive was one of these oak- and elm- and eucalyptus-shaded affairs that are supposed to make you think of rustic country lanes.*** “Nameless” is hired by a financial speculator whose son has been kidnapped. This job, deliver the $300,000 ransom. This supposedly simple task leads to a murdered man and 27 stitches for our detective. Now

Synopsis.......A San Francisco private detective becomes involved in a kidnapping case when a young boy's abductor demands that a third party deliver the ransom.The Snatch, originally published back in 1971 is the first in Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series. Pronzini has to date written a total of 37 books with a couple of Nameless mysteries published as recently as last year.Several times over the years, I’ve toyed with the idea of dipping into the series but have always suppressed the u...

AUTHOR Pronzini, BillTITLE The Snatch DATE READ 02/28/2019 RATING 4.5/B+FIRST SENTENCE Tamarack Drive was one of these oak- and elm- and eucalyptus-shaded affairs that are supposed to make you think of rustic country lanes.GENRE/ PUB DATE/PUBLISHER / # OF Crime Fiction/1969/kindle speaking volumes/158 pgsSERIES/STAND-ALONE #1 NamelessCHALLENGE GR 2019 Reading Goal 30/111GROUP READ CHARACTERS Nameless -- approaching 40, former cop, private detective TIME/PLACE Late 1960's/Northern California CO...