Congratulations! Nameless has tied the knot and is on the way of beginning a new chapter in his life. Forget about the fact that he was sweating like a pig before "choking" out his " I do." And let's not mention his less than spectacular performance during his wedding night. Nameless is just his plain old self and has a case to work on before he goes on his real honeymoon.

His case is easy, simple and won't take long. Uh, oh. Forget about long. A case of him trying to find the birth parents of an adopted woman becomes more complex than you would think. No one wants to talk about it and Nameless finds himself up a wall that will lead to more trouble and impact on this newlywed's bride.

Pronzini spins a tale in which some things are best left alone. Nameless is also challenged to come into the 20th century with computers and an assistant who can stand toe to toe with our aging investigator. This was a delightful story in seeing a man set in his ways coming to terms with the needed changes in his life. It is also a story that makes you wonder if there are some information in one's life that should be kept secret. Find out as you read this enjoyable Nameless thriller.

In one of the best, and certainly most under-appreciated, mystery series around. Why aren't these books bigger sellers? Why aren't the new entires available in paperback? One tip on reading Nameless: Read the books in order. The character changes and develops more than almost anyone in the field.

Bill Pronzini's continuing series of the Nameless Detective who is drawn into another puzzling case of abuse and murder. Pronzini is excellent in building suspense and is superb in using simply dialogue to "paint" a character, to reveal the dark and disturbing side of people. Prejudice-yes! I love this series and hope the detective continues to take me on his twisting adventures as I keep-my-eye-on-that-book-so-I-don't-lose-it (my no.1 indicator of affection).

I always enjoy Gideon Oliver mysteries. The puzzles are always cleverly constructed and full of intriguing details. They also benefit from a nice touch of humor. "Twenty Blue Devils" is no exception. The mystery revolves around a family-run coffee business in Tahiti. Gideon has to figure out the meaning of some curious details on corpses and skeletons to prove that a murder has actually been committed, and then to figure out who's guilty of what. Followers of the Gideon Oliver series will remember that Gideon started as a bachelor, and his sidekick was John Lau, friend and local FBI agent. Then Gideon met and married Julie, and she has increasingly generally become the principal sidekick. John's role has diminished accordingly. This isn't a problem. Julie is a satisfactory character. Sometimes you might miss John, though. I did, anyway. In "Twenty Blue Devils" John makes a nice comeback. It is his family that owns the coffee business, and it is through him that Gideon gets involved in the case. Altogether, this is one of those books that keeps you turning the pages to see what happens next. I always hesitate to give mysteries a five-star rating. In my opinion, few can match Christie and Doyle for plot and characterization. They are my standard. Among current writers, however, Elkins is one of my favorites. And "Twenty Blue Devils" is one of his better tales. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

I always like a mystery book which is built the old-fashioned way. There's a corpse, and someone's got to figure out who it is and why they're dead. When you've got the Hugh Grant of dectives, Gideon Oliver, along for the ride, you know you're going to have more twists and turns then a a maze. I liked Twenty Blue Devils, because it was engaging and had some interesting characters. A lot of the questions brought up by the corpse's skeleton were fascintating, and of course, the coffee had appeal to a Seattlite. Elkins is a very intelligent and detailed writer, who plots out a phenomenal mysteries that you just don't want to put down.

Aaron Elkins writes superb mysteries the old fashioned way. He actually has a puzzle in each of his novels!! Along with his intriguing and well thought out puzzles, he also has nice characters, exotic locals and humorous quips. Read them all.

Alejandro Monahan is the son of a NY cop and Mexican Indian mother. The old man "retired" to raise his family in the Baja and was killed by drug lords tied to the title drug. Alejandro is now a sexy club singer and also Chilebean, a deep cover agent with the NYPD looking to avenge his father's death.

Ther characters are great: Che-Che, Roberto Barrios and Pizzaro on the drug side; Too Tall Paulie, Sal Elia and Joey the G-man for the cops. You're never sure who's the real boss is or where the line between undercover agents and the drug business is drawn. Amidst a lot of action Alejandro convinces Che-Che he can guarantee safe importation of heroine using a military guided parachute technology.

With 100 pages to go, the shipment has landed and the multiple Cleopatra lines develop: the drug, the queen and a woman whose father called her that. I had it at five stars until the end, which was just too Hollywood and dropped it down to four. A lousy ending, but an otherwise great cop / druggie story.

I'm used to reading page turners. There were too many characters in this book and I found it a bit hard to catch up to them, and who was the good guy or the bad guy. However, there were plenty of action going on enough to make this book into a movie--people getting shot and killed, cars blowing up, etc., drug abuse, sex, blood everywhere, and ridiculous spy devices put inside genital orifice unheard of in real life. I wasn't too happy about the ending and I thought the Alejandro character wasn't appropriate. A latin singer and a cop? Come one! I found that tacky!

Author and former lieutenant of the NYPD Caunitz is the best of the police procedureal novelists, the most innovative, and one writer who gives you uncensored dialogue. You recognize it as fact; he's been there. His other books tell stories from the police side of things. This one tells about the narcotic trade from the inside as the reader follows the dangerous life of a detective who goes undercover. There is a crushing anaconda, a mysterious feminine killer, and much more. Novelists are able to deduct travel from their income tax which is why we see so many exotic locations in these books and this one is no exception. Some authors end up sounding like travel writers but Caunitz makes it work. Other thriller writers have achieved more fame but no one makes police/detective stories LIVE the way this author does. Try it, you'll like it.

When the poisoned Bowery bum turned out to be a missing Senator, Lt. Weigand was glad that Mr. and Mrs. North were not involved. Then he found that they knew the murdered man -- and were just wacky enough to put their own heads into a noose trying to untangle this bizarre, baffling case.

This is the weakest Nameless detective novel I've read.

A couple of college kids go missing. Nameless traces them to a town composed almost entirely of bigots. Without giving anything away, I can only say that once a possible motive for murder is discovered (fairly early in the novel), the rest is slow going.

Though Pronzini clearly has plenty of anger towards racism, he has no real insight to offer, and I didn't have much interest in seeing which of his mob of cardboard villains is guilty of murder.

For a much better Nameless Detective novel, try Hardcase.

The Sentinels was my first exposure to Pronzini's "Nameless detective" novels. "Nameless" narrates the story without revealing his name. His namelessness is neither here nor there unlike Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" movies and neither adds nor subtracts from the telling of the story which, in itself, is a fair detective novel.

In The Sentinels, the narrator travels to Northern California to investigate the disappearance of a college girl. While in the small town where she was last seen, he runs afoul of the locals and a group known as The Sentinels that may or may not have caused the girl's disappearance. Who was the girl travelling with? Why would anyone want to harm her? These questions make for an excellent mystery and needless to say the detective eventually gets the answers at considerable personal risk to himself. All in all it's a good detective story if somewhat familiar.

I did have a few problems with the novel. It seems to me that it's a cliched cheap shot to present all rural people as xenophobic bigots. Similarly presenting fundamentalist Christians as hypocrites is unfair and mean spirited. The novel also deconstructs its own theme that people should be tolerant of those who are different and have different values. Pronzini clearly doesn't show the same tolerance for small town rural people and fundamentalist Christians by presenting them in such a bad light.

I listened to the unabridged taped version which was read with appropriate style and inflection by John Michalski.