Shackles by Bill Pronzini
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"I have a burial spot all picked out for you. And you mustn't worry - I'll dig your grave deep so the animals won't disturb you.

My fourth Pronzini read - and another one in his famous series about a private detective whose name is never mentioned - is a conventional revenge story in the tradition of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. Instead of Château d'If in southern France, Central California provides interesting locations for the plot: the region roughly east of Stockton, Ca, and west of the Sierra Nevada range.

Shackles (1988) is the 17th installment in the series: it follows Deadfall that I have just reviewed here. The beginning of the novel evokes a happy and carefree atmosphere: the detective and Kerry, his love interest, meet Eberhardt's (he is the detective's partner) new girlfriend. The mood is so cheerful that it is obvious something bad is just about to happen.

It does. The detective is abducted, chloroformed, and driven to a mountain cabin in a remote area, where he is shackled with an iron chain to a wall. He is left to die there, but not quickly. So deep is the abductor's grudge that he has provided a lot of food for the detective: the idea is to extend his suffering and prolong the process of dying. Our hero even muses about sawing his leg off to escape but the lack of suitable tools makes the selfie surgery idea difficult to implement.

As stereotypical as the imprisonment part of the story is it made me think about it as a metaphor of human life: one is chained to a particular place, certain foods, radio stations, etc. for the remainder of one's given lifespan, with death the only thing to look forward to.

I am not going to spoil the story by divulging whether there is the second part of the story, the part that portrays the vengeance. Lame joke, sorry. However, while in a facetious mood I will quote a short passage that made me smile:

"Retirement is hell, so to hell with retirement."

That's the spirit! Only people in wrong jobs may want to retire! Anyway, reading the novel - other than the mentions of many Central California locations that I find familiar - has not been a particularly memorable experience.

Two and a quarter stars.


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