Fever by Bill Pronzini
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

" Men and women who don't have the skill to consistently beat the odds, who can't quit when they're losing, whose constant need for the thrill of the bet is as addictive as any drug. The estimated number of them is staggering - as many as ten million adults in the U.S. alone, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. Combined, adult pathological gamblers and problem gamblers cost California nearly a billion dollars annually. "
[By definition, odds can't be beat, skills or no skills - a mathematician's comment on the above passage.]

Well, last October when reviewing Savages I swore that I would never reach for a later installment in the Unnamed (not Nameless!) Detective series because of the smarmy soap-opera feel with the same old same old cast and the boring familiarity of characters. Naturally, I fail to keep my word: I found two Pronzini's novels even more recent than Savages and here is a review of the first one - Fever (2008). Yes, meeting the same cast is boring - the sixty-something Mr. UnnamedButVaguelyItalian, the forty-something Jack Runyon, and the 26-year-old Tamara - but the novel is not that bad after all.

Mr. Unnamed has just located a missing woman: the client is the woman's husband, perhaps more concerned about her spending habits than about her well-being. The woman is a gambling addict and her losses over the last four years have totaled more than $200,000. She does not want to come back to her husband; instead she promises to file for divorce.

In the meantime, Jack Runyon, the other detective in the firm, has been hired by an older woman to find her missing son. Mr. Runyon, whose wife died a few years ago, is still in mourning and has been unable to get into a relationship. He accidentally runs into a mysterious woman and develops a strong attraction to her.

Naturally, both cases get complicated and serious: people disappear, several bodies are found. The stories are moderately captivating and readers who like major plot twists will likely be very happy.

Other than the interesting plot I quite like Mr. Unnamed's extended rant against cell phones - here's just a small fragment

"[...] I've never felt the desire for constant connection to my loved ones, business acquaintances, casual friends, and total strangers. A phone, in my old-fashioned world, is an instrument that provides necessary - emphasis on the word necessary - access to another person for a definite purpose. It is not a toy. It is not a source of public auditory (or visual) masturbation."

I share a lot of Mr. Unnamed's frustration with cell phones (likely because I am of the same age). Alas, one will also find quite a few passages and motifs in the novel that are just exasperating. The annoying, painfully cliché conversation about "intimate plastic surgery." The entire Bryn Darby thread, cheap and exploitative. The silly "How is it hanging?" jokes. The cloyingly upbeat ending. Oh well, I did find some enjoyment from reading the novel, so I am giving it a marginally positive recommendation, but it is the slimmest of margins.

Two-and-a-half stars.


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