Bill Pronzini
Double
Mysterious Press, 1984
ISBN 0-446-40413-6
Christina says:
At a P. I. convention in San Diego Sharon McCone meets a fellow
detective from San Francisco with whom she has worked before and whom she
calls Wolf because a newspaper article once presented him as the last of
the lone wolf P. I.s. Neither of them is particularly interested in the
convention. Sharon wants to spend some time with her family in San Diego
and get together with her former boss Elaine, now the security chief of
the convention hotel. She can talk to her only briefly before Elaine dies
falling from the roof of the hotel. Sharon doesn’t want to believe in
suicide although she noticed how depressed Elaine seemed. Wolf helps
Sharon investigate Elaine’s death but also looks into the disappearance
of a boy and his mother.
Mystery writing couple Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini joined forces in
this book where her Sharon McCone meets his Nameless detective. They take
turns writing chapters from the point of view of their respective
protagonists and at first it seems that McCone and Nameless are
investigating separate cases. Muller’s style is similar to Pronzini’s.
McCone fans learn many details about her family and her career. The
personal history of the detective is my favorite part of the McCone
series. Nameless is new to me, but DOUBLE made me curious about Pronzini’s
own books. I liked the change in perspective throughout DOUBLE. Seeing
McCone through the eyes of a different writer was intriguing.
Muller and Pronzini do a good job in weaving the threads of their
stories together. Too bad they haven’t written more books like DOUBLE. |
