His P.I. license reinstated, his old friend Eberhardt back on his feet, and things with his girlfriend Kerry patched up, Nameless is ready to roll again. On his first day back at work, he lands an assignment he would have thought went out with the Great Depression: tracking down a hobo.
It's hard to imagine the prim Miss Arlene Bradford wanting to find a father thought to be living the life of a bindlestiff—riding the rails, sleeping in boxcars, eating mulligan stew. Nameless is even more surprised, though, when her pouty, Marilyn Monroe-like sister, Hannah, implores him to leave her father alone. Still, he's getting paid to find Charles Bradford, and Nameless follows his trail through the labyrinth of the Western Pacific hobo jungle straight to a tiny railway museum on the far side of town... a museum run by a man named Dallmeyer whose true identity is more sinister than it seems.
Reviews
"Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're living those explosive days of terror."
—Robert Ludlum
"Once in a crocodile's age you come across a writer whose work you instinctively like... I've found one—Bill Pronzini. Buy him, read him, and relax."
—Los Angeles Times
"A skilled writer working at the top of his ability."
—Denver Post
"Pronzini delivers breathtaking suspense"
—San Francisco Examiner
"His novels are packed with adventure, fresh characterization, and minute-by-minute suspense."
—Chicago Tribune
"Pronzini is the master of the shivery, spine-tingling it-could-happen suspense story."
—Publishers Weekly
"Pronzini is a pro."
—The New York Times