Kinsmen

Nameless Detective #43

by Bill Pronzini

Allison Shay was traveling home from the University of Oregon with her new boyfriend, Rob Compton, when their car broke down near the tiny rural town of Creekside, California. Soon after, Allison and Rob went missing without a trace.

Whatever happened, it felt like something bad to the Nameless Detective. Five days without a whisper of contact with the outside world. Long past the inconsiderate-kids stage; long past the silly and the harmless.

Kinsmen takes Bill Pronzini's classic private investigator to California's northeast backwoods, where an isolated community is determined to keep a deep, dark secret: why Allison Shay and Rob Compton really vanished.

The real question facing the Nameless Detective: are they still alive?

Genres: Mystery

185 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Mark]

The Bill Pronzini private detective which goes by no name in any of the books goes up to northern rural California because a young college student Allison Shay and her boyfriend went missing while on her way to visiting her mother.

This is a 185 page novella from 1993 which was released as an Hardcover by Cemetery Dance publications in 2012. You will notice this rather quickly as there are no mobile phones involved and anything like social media. This is an old fashioned investigation and you do join the leading man on his quest for answers which you find out along the way.

Very well written with nice observations by the writer. I really enjoyed this short but strong story.

[Gloria Feit]

The second of the “Nameless Detective” novellas to be published simultaneously (although it should perhaps be noted that this one is copyrighted 1993) finds him chasing a couple of missing college kids in the northern California mountains. Allison Shay was bringing her boyfriend from the University of Oregon back to meet her mother in San Francisco. When she didn’t turn up, “Nameless” was retained to find out what happened to the couple, who had not been heard from for five days.

From that point flows Nameless’ efforts to discover whether the pair is even still alive. He travels to the last known place they were known to be, Creekside, CA, where he encounters widespread hostility and racism, a paramilitary group known as the Kinsmen, and finally the knowledge that the beau, Rob Compton, was African-American, while Allison was white.

Actually, the tale reads more like a short story, but its 160 pages, I guess, makes it a novella. The stark writing, coupled with Nameless’ reactions to the bigotry he encounters, brings home the injustice of racism. The swiftness of the prose and the fast-moving investigation keeps the reader turning pages just as quickly. In fact the book can be finished in a single sitting, and it is recommended.

[Nancy]

Though published in 2012, this story takes place some time in the early or mid 1990's--back when students still shared a house land-line phone and the "married student housing" for the University of Oregon was thin-walled "temporary" buildings from the era of WWII vets using their GI bill benefits.

The mystery itself is nothing remarkable, but the descriptions of place and people for Eugene and rural northern California are are excellent.

[Kevin Lucia]

Ripped right through this in two days. Now, I'm no aficionado on detective fiction, but this reminds me of some of the pulp novels I read as a kid: a quick and neat, straight ahead mystery. Very tight prose, very nice writing.

[Wayne's]

Enjoyable Private Eye story, well written.

[Aaron Bucy]

Fast reading book. It reads like a 1940's noir detective novel, except it is set in the 1980's. Easy to read in just a couple of sittings. I enjoyed the story, even though the topic is uncomfortable.

[La'Jacinth]

I love how Bill brings Nameless through from beginning to end, and you not only get the ride but learn about different people at different times.

Even though this book was written in 2012, the racial/class issues still hold true in 2025.

[Charlie Eckhaus]

Familiar remote/deep backwoods setting for Nameless, back in his early days (viz Eberhardt problems) establish a spooky suspenseful mood.
I understand this was the basis for the full Nameless novel Sentinels, which I read back a while. A curious bit of dialog and subsequent incidental observations triggered memories of the motivation for the crime.
Rolling more quickly after the key info is divulged.
All-in-all an exemplary PI case.

(to be concluded)

[Karl]

Here is a list of all the books (in order) Happy Reading.

1971 The Snatch Random House
1973 The Vanished Random House
1973 Undercurrents Random House
1977 Blowback Ramdom House
1978 Twospot Putman
1980 Laybrinth St. Martin's Press
1980 A Killing In Xanadu Waves Press
1981 Hoodwinked St. Martin's Press
1982 Scattershot St. Martin's Press
1982 Dragonfire St. Martin's Press
1983 Bindlestiff St. Martin's Press
1983 Casefile St. Martin's Press
1984 Quicksilver St. Martin's Press
1984 Nightshades St. Martin's Press
1984 Double St. Martin's Press
1985 Bones St. Martin's Press
1985 Grave Yard Plots St. Martin's Press
1886 Dreadfall St. Martin's Press
1988 Shackles St. Martin's Press
1988 Small Fellonies St. Martin's Press
1990 Jackpot Delacorte
1991 Breakdown Delacorte
1992 Quarry Delacorte
1992 Epitaths Delacorte
1993 Demons Delacorte
1995 Hardcase Delacorte
1996 Spadework Crippen & Landru
1996 Sentinels Carroll & Graf
1997 Illusions Carroll & Graf
1998 Boobytrap Carroll & Graf
1999 Sluths Five Star
1999 Duo Five Star
2000 Crazybones Carroll & Graf
2002 Bleeders Carroll & Graf
2003 Spook Carroll & Graf
2003 Scenarios Five Star
2005 Nightcrawlers Forge
2006 Mourners Forge
2007 Savages Forge
2008 Feaver Forge
2009 Schemers Forge
2010 Betrayers Forge
2011 Camouflage Forge
2012 Hellbox Forge
2012 Kinsmen Cemetery Dance
2012 Femme Cemetery Dance
2013 Nemesis Forge

[Jack]

I really like Pronzini's work. I've always felt he is a little out of place at Cemetery Dance, but I am glad they published him, because otherwise I might not have stumbled upon Kinsmen. There is a particular line in this story where Pronzini's protagonist shuns a film because of the blood, which I found particularly ironic, considering some of the stuff I have read in Cemetery Dance. This book is relatively clean. Most of the violence is implied or happens "off-screen."

Pronzini writes old school detective fiction that brings to mind Hammett, Chandler, and Daly. The cover hearkens back to that style of fiction. I am a big fan of the hardboiled pulp detective genre. Books like this give me a warm, nostalgic feeling. Pronzini does it well, with sparse stripped down passages that, like his nameless protagonist, never seem to draw too much attention to themselves. There is not a wasted word to be found anywhere. The narrator is never named, but you don't really notice the absence. It's quite the trick, and I'm not sure Pronzini gets enough credit for how well he does it.

This is the second of the nameless detective series that I have read. This book didn't have quite the flash and sizzle of Femme, but it was solid and I read it in one sitting. Kinsmen is about racism at its most basic level, and Pronzini shines a harsh light upon the nature of humanity as it relates to race. It's a good read. If you are a fan of pulp detective fiction that is stripped to its bare bones, this is a book for you. It's like viewing a black and white pencil sketch. All form, no flash.

[Chuck Barksdale]

This is an old 1993 novella that Cemetery Dance recently issued as a hardback book. This story eventually was used as part of the book SENTINELS that Pronzini issued as a novel in 1996. Although I had read SENTINELS it had been so long ago that I did not really remember the story.

Nameless is asked to investigate the disappearance of Allison Shay, a college student from the University of Oregon by her mother. Nameless finds evidence of Allison in the rural town of Creekside, California in northern California close to Oregon. Allison stayed there with her boyfriend that Nameless later finds out was named Rob Compton. The town is not overly cooperative and when Nameless finds out later that Rob is African-American he realizes why the town was even more unfriendly to him since many appeared to not like Rob's relationship with the white Allison.

I've read all but the last two Nameless books and it was interesting to return to an older book in the series without cell phones and computers and the younger assistants Nameless now has. I've not been disappointed by any books in this series and will continue to read them all as long as Bill Pronzini writes them.

[Martin]

I read this book expecting a pulp fiction detective story and I was not disappointed. This was my first Pronzini story and I will definitely be back for more, in fact I just started another. I enjoyed the pacing and writing style of the story and the story itself was satisfying. The story revolves around a detective looking into a couple of missing college kids who passed through a small town in Northern California. As you would expect he find more than he bargained for in this small town.

[Nancy]

I was given this book in a giveaway; had never heard of the author, his "nameless detective" or the book. It is only 185 pages and easy enough to read in a couple days; the private detective is on the case of a missing pair of college co-eds in a small town Oregon. I will be looking for more books in this series. The language was crisp and clean and I could practically hear the detective's voice in my ear, telling me his story. A very well written story!

[Cherie Waggie]

Bill Pronzini is my favorite author. I love his Nameless Detective series, and this was one I hadn't seen before. When I began to read it, the story was very familiar, and it didn't take long for me to figure out that I had read it, but under another title by Bill Pronzini. Same story, condensed into a novelette, with some changes. The original was the first Bill Pronzini book I ever read. No spoilers.

[GlenK]

As a fan of Bill Pronzni's Nameless Detective series, I'm happy to see this (copyright 1993) novella in print. It's a quick read at 185 pages but I miss the dense, multi-thread plots of his full-length novels and, also, the characters are a bit sketchy here. Still, it is enjoyable and very much recommended.

[Donald]

Straight shot detective story. Obviously an oldie, because of the technology within the tale, but a goodie for the same reason. The story unwinds as the detective and the reader learn the clues. Fun, quick read.

[John]

Don't get distracted by the pulpy cover. This is a remarkable short novel that lays bare the hatred in peoples' souls. Like many of the best mysteries, it's also a well-done bit of sleight-of-hand. I knew I was being misdirected, but I was still surprised.

[Bob]

I've always enjoyed the nameless detective stories. Great novella.

[Charlene]

A chilling look at racism in back water communities.