30 years ago someone sold a movie script to a Hollywood studio and the movie was relatively successful. And now 5 old pulp writers had received a novelette called "Hoodwink" in the mail - together with an accusation that they plagiarized the novelette for the movie script all those years ago and never paid for it. That all happens a few days before a pulp convention, bringing the same 5 pulp writers for the first time in 30 years together, is about to start. So one of them comes to our detective and ask for his help finding out who sent the letters and is trying to blackmail everyone.

Pulp convention may not sound like something most people will enjoy but our detective (who will remain nameless for the whole series even though we did get a first name in an earlier novel (the one where two series crossed)) is a pulp collector. So of he goes - he does not think that he can solve anything but the weekend promises to be entertaining anyway.

And it is. He even starts falling in love with a woman who is too young for him. And then a man dies and the pulp writer who invited the detective to the convention is found in a locked room with the victim and the gun. Case closed, right? Well... maybe not so fast. Before long another man dies in another locked room (this time without a gun and a handy murderer), just before the detective manages to talk to him. And the chase is on. Before the end, there will be a gun fight, a ghost town, an unhappy father and a lot of old laundry from the days when the pulps used to be popular. On yes - and the truth will finally emerge - not just of the murders but of the movie script and some other old stories which everyone would have preferred never to be mentioned again.

The end of the novel leaves our detective in a somewhat different position than when it started - he is still 53 but he is in love (and the woman seems to also be in love with him), he moved to new offices (finally) and his best friend is going through a personal issue that promises to change things a lot more after that. So we shall see what happens next.

Not a very original plot (it sounds very familiar - I am pretty sure I had not read this book and a lot of the book did not sounds familiar but I am sure I had read a book/story with a similar plot before - for all I know that may be the original actually) but well done and a good entry in the series. ( )

nameless meets Kelly Wade at pulp convention

Former pulp writer and current hack Russell Dancer invites Nameless to the first annual Western Pulp Convention in San Francisco. He wants Nameless to help him locate the person who is trying to blackmail Dancer for a purported plagiarism of a story called "Hoodwink." Arriving at the convention, Nameless discovers that a group of former friends (and now uncomfortable colleagues) who wrote for the pulps called the "Pulpeteers" have all received blackmail notes. Nameless is in seventh heaven as he meets many of his favorite pulp writers, buys pulp novels for his collection and meets a stunning younger woman who is the daughter of two famous pulp writers. For once, Nameless has some luck with the ladies. But is Kerry Wade attracted to him, or to his job as a private eye? Is he really attracted to her, or to her connection to the pulps? The convention is unexpectedly disrupted when one of the guests is found dead in a locked room while Russell Dancer is holding a gun that's been recently fired. It looks like an obvious case of murder by Dancer, who has been feuding with the man. Dancer denies his guilt, and only Nameless is willing to believe him. As Nameless tracks down the guilty party, he finds himself faced with a second locked room mystery... and a target for a murderer.

Very solid and readable detective story featuring the detective with no name. I get the feeling 'nameless' is pretty much Bill Pronzini - if he had time to be a detective. This one is a bit different as it takes place at a 'pulp' convention, which along with being the detective's passion is also Pronzini's inspiration for the character and genre. There is even a scene where 'nameless' just about meets Pronzini. Nameless isn't the usual hard-boiled tough guy though. He's actually a very nice bloke, who is as happy with a beer and a quiet night reading his beloved pulps, as his heroes would be with a bottle of bourbon and and the doubtful charms of the latest femme fatale, though there is time for a bit of romance in this one . Most of all he's a very well drawn character. It's just a shame that it's so hard to find the early books in this series now but I suppose everything can't stay in print forever. ( )