Booby Trap by Bill Pronzini (First Edition)

A vacation in the mountains by the Nameless Detective of San Francisco is spoilt when a bomber appears, seeking revenge on the host's family. Nameless is staying with the family of a district attorney who sent the bomber to jail.

On a fishing trip to Deep Mountain Lake in the High Sierras, Pronzini's San Francisco-based Nameless Detective pursues a crash course with a psychotic bomber just released from prison and bent on revenge. Nameless, seen last in Illusions (1997), is called Bill here?once?by 12-year-old Chuck Dixon. Chuck and his mother are staying in a cabin near Nameless's, waiting for Chuck's father, an assistant DA in San Francisco, to join them. Readers are privy to the journals of David Michael Latimer, the bomber who has targeted the judge and a lawyer who sent him to jail for bombing attacks on his ex-wife and her lover. Latimer's ingenious boobytraps have killed both men, and his next target, Chuck's dad, isn't aware of the danger he faces. Pronzini gradually draws the principals in his plot together near Deep Mountain Lake, first with the death of the retired local sheriff, which disquiets Nameless, and then with the odd behavior of a few newcomers, who variously spark the PI's suspicions. When one of these unlikely fishermen plans a trip with Chuck, Nameless replaces his fiberglass rod with a metal one. Approaching 60, Nameless is aging with grace and sensitivity and no loss of his macho appeal. Pronzini plays his readers expertly, hooking them with a credible cast and setting his plot line with just the right amount of tension.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

San Francisco private investigator "Nameless" is still hurting after the suicide of his ex-partner (Illusions ), so when the opportunity to spend a few days fishing at a secluded Northern California lake with assistant district attorney Pat Dixon and his family presents itself, he accepts. The week begins quietly enough, but the tranquil mood is shattered when camp manager Nils Ostergaard is found dead, evidently the victim of a fall. It could have happened that way, but Nameless' instincts raise troubling questions. He starts snooping and soon discovers that one of the other guests may have a motive to harm the Dixons as revenge for a case Pat worked on years ago. The only problem: Which one of the guests is it? Once again, Pronzini takes us through an emotional turning point for Nameless while still delivering an intriguing, clever mystery. In the High Sierra Mountains, facing down a Unabomber-like killer and protecting a decent family, Nameless achieves a simple yet profoundly satisfying personal acceptance that may help him finally overcome the loss of his partner. This is character-driven crime fiction at its very best. Wes Lukowsky