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Summary: Nameless Honors His Italian Heritage
Review: Author Bill Pronzini has always made it clear that Nameless is Italian. Sooner or later, one of the books had to move closer to San Francisco's Italian heritage and Epitaphs is the book that does that. From detailed descriptions of the changing character of North Beach and bocce games to exploring notions of family honor from the old country, Epitaphs is rich in cultural heritage. The mystery itself is a reversion to the earliest Nameless books in which the facts are not hard to discern, and the story stands on its character development. The subject here is the nature of friendship. Nameless has always been more interested in doing the right thing than in getting into the right income bracket. So when a friend asks him to look into the disappearance of their mutual friend's beautiful granddaughter, Gianna Fornessi, Nameless grumbles . . . but agrees to help. Pretty soon, he's suspicious that something's wrong. Gianna has left the job her grandfather thinks she has, and lives on a spending scale that the former job would not have supported. Meeting her roommate, Ashley Hansen, makes Nameless more suspicious. The plot complications start soon as Ashley is killed in their apartment. In each complication, another layer of civilization is peeled off of society, leaving Nameless to explore many of the basest human instincts. In his personal life, the split with Eberhardt that began in Quarry gets worse. On the other hand, his relationship with Kerry Wade improves as Cybil and he are reconciled. The book's end connects to Nameless's change of character after Shackles. He becomes judge and jury concerning a serious offense. As I read this book, I was reminded of the dark Raymond Chandler stories about family secrets as well as Chinatown. Epitaphs is a worthy successor to those fine works.
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