The Snatch (1971)

Synopsis.......
A San Francisco private detective becomes involved in a kidnapping case when a young boy's abductor demands that a third party deliver the ransom.
The Snatch, originally published back in 1971 is the first in Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series. Pronzini has to date written a total of 37 books with a couple of Nameless mysteries published as recently as last year.
Several times over the years, I’ve toyed with the idea of dipping into the series but have always suppressed the urge until now. Part of the attraction for me was the fact that the series never seemed to take off and explode into mainstream consciousness. It sort of meandered along, ignored by the masses, but seemingly attracting enough readers to warrant the author continuing with the character and the publisher continuing to print the results of his labour. The restaurant serving the best food isn’t always the most popular one in town, sometimes it’s a well kept secret.
In The Snatch, Nameless is retained by Louis Martinetti, a real-estate developer whose young son has been kidnapped. Nameless is the errand boy engaged to drop off the ransom. The money drop is hijacked and Nameless gets stabbed during the melee. With the suspected kidnapper killed, the money gone and the boy still missing, Nameless, with the police now involved digs deeper to resolve who amongst Martinetti’s associates could have engineered the abduction.
Coincidentally the last book I just read, Randy Wayne White’s Sanibel Flats also concerned a boy’s kidnapping. This time around there’s a darker feel to the mystery, in part driven by the location, with the action unfolding in the foggy, bay area of San Francisco; and partly stemming from Nameless himself......a middle-aged, ex-cop, with few friends. There’s a fractious relationship with his girlfriend who he loves, but she despises his calling, and there’s fragility about his health which both concerns and frightens him but which at this stage remains unresolved.
This series and author is definitely one for me to follow in future months.
5 from 5
Bought last month from Amazon Kindle UK.
( )

Synopsis.......
A San Francisco private detective becomes involved in a kidnapping case when a young boy's abductor demands that a third party deliver the ransom.
The Snatch, originally published back in 1971 is the first in Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series. Pronzini has to date written a total of 37 books with a couple of Nameless mysteries published as recently as last year.
Several times over the years, I’ve toyed with the idea of dipping into the series but have always suppressed the urge until now. Part of the attraction for me was the fact that the series never seemed to take off and explode into mainstream consciousness. It sort of meandered along, ignored by the masses, but seemingly attracting enough readers to warrant the author continuing with the character and the publisher continuing to print the results of his labour. The restaurant serving the best food isn’t always the most popular one in town, sometimes it’s a well kept secret.
In The Snatch, Nameless is retained by Louis Martinetti, a real-estate developer whose young son has been kidnapped. Nameless is the errand boy engaged to drop off the ransom. The money drop is hijacked and Nameless gets stabbed during the melee. With the suspected kidnapper killed, the money gone and the boy still missing, Nameless, with the police now involved digs deeper to resolve who amongst Martinetti’s associates could have engineered the abduction.
Coincidentally the last book I just read, Randy Wayne White’s Sanibel Flats also concerned a boy’s kidnapping. This time around there’s a darker feel to the mystery, in part driven by the location, with the action unfolding in the foggy, bay area of San Francisco; and partly stemming from Nameless himself......a middle-aged, ex-cop, with few friends. There’s a fractious relationship with his girlfriend who he loves, but she despises his calling, and there’s fragility about his health which both concerns and frightens him but which at this stage remains unresolved.
This series and author is definitely one for me to follow in future months.
5 from 5
Bought last month from Amazon Kindle UK.

http://col2910.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/bill-pronzini-snatch.html ( )

Bill Pronzini is a very good writer. This book was a good mystery and he kept me interested through the whole book. ( )

Review from Badelynge.
The Snatch is a very early Bill Pronzini novel from 1971 and the very first of his long running Nameless Detective series. And it's a very decent beginning. Pronzini may have been just starting out on his longer form career but he'd already gone some way to developing his skills through his short stories, this book being a reworking of one such. Don't be fooled by the pedestrian seeming set up to the plot, what looks like a routine kidnapping and ransom soon manages to throw a few curve balls. It's all cleanly written and constructed, playing to its pulp noir influences, the most commendable aspect being the character development of our unconventional hero. He's a very engaging character, a devotee to the pulps himself which engenders a neat homage within homage dynamic that blurs the boundaries between Pronzini himself and his nameless protagonist. Within the first few pages, Nameless has already compared someone to Doc Savage and greater props to the author for allowing an image of Lester Leith, Erle Stanley Gardener's crafty pulp creation, to jolt Nameless from a blue funk onto a hotter trail. Nameless's obsession with the pulps is a major aspect of the series, in this first book it highlights the cracks in his already crumbling and damaged relationship with his current girlfriend. Her judgement being," I want a man. Not a stubborn and self-deluding adolescent trying to live the life of a fictional hero." This isn't just fan fiction though, Pronzini just happens to be a very fine storyteller, mastering the art of hard-boiled dialogue and first person stream of consciousness that wouldn't sit uncomfortably next to the 30's pulp maestros both he and Nameless idolises. ( )

The NAMELESS DETECTIVE hires on to handle the ransom payoff in a kidnapping case. Financier Louis Martinetti doesn't trust the police to deal with the man who snatched his 9-year-old son from his military prep school, nor is it clear that he trusts the members of his own household. On the apointed evening, NAMELESS takes a briefcase that contains $300,000 in cash to a secluded loaction chosen by the kidnapper. Then all hell breaks loose.