Great stuff, Mark. Thanks for digging it all out. I love that
last line. P.I. Bill Pronzini -- it has a ring to it. I'll
look for or order TWOSPOT.
MOURNERS I just finshed reading has alternating chapters
focusing on Runyon and Tamara (both in 3rd person). The POV
shift doesn't take me out of the story.
Ed
---
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net wrote:
> 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."
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