Ed wrote:
"Do you mean the other characters (like Kerry, his wife, Jake
Runyon, and Tamara Corbins) in the series? I notice they
refer to him as
'Bill'."
No, I mean that the first four novels in the series were
written in the first person and Pronzini avoided his
character's first name, but his first crossover book, which
was indeed Twospot, was written in alternating chapters with
Collin Wilcox. As I recall (I must have gotten that book from
the library, as I don't have a copy), Pronzini explains in
the intro that it became necessary that Nameless have at
least a first name so Frank Hastings could address him in
Wilcox's police procedural chapters.
Pronzini also addresses his detective's namelessness in the
intro to the short story collection, Case File (1983):
"Not too many other people figured this out [that Nameless
was actually the author, and vice versa] until, in a 1978
collaboration between
'Nameless' and Collin Wilcox's Lieutenant Frank Hastings
(Twospot), he was publicly and for novelistic reasons given a
first name: Bill. Aha! folks said then. The damn detective
has the same first name as the writer; ergo, he must have the
same last name, too. Right?
"Right. But he has remained officially 'Nameless' in
subsequent entries in the series and will continue to remain
so in future entries. For one very good reason.
"Bill Pronzini may be an okay name for a writer, but it's a
lousy name for a private eye."
Mark
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