I think I enjoyed reading about Death Valley more than I did the mystery!! Great description- made you want to run for a bottle of water! 🥵Not much of a story and I disliked every character - but still like Pronzini 95% of the time.

"You could stay in one place all day, from dawn to dusk - Zabriskie Point, say, or the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells - and with each ten-degree rise and fall of the sun, the colors of rocks and sand hills changed from dark rose to burnished gold, from chocolate brown to indigo and gray-black, with a spectrum of subtler shades in between."Bill Pronzini, winner of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, is mostly known for his "Nameless Detective" series. The Other Side of Sile...

I chose this book because it had one of its primary locations in Death Valley and I wanted to know more about it. Though the action begins there it soon moves into Las Vegas and other Nevada cities. It was a good mystery and kept me reading and guessing but it wasn't as well written as I'd hoped.

This is my first novel by Pronzini, and I enjoyed it. It involves a man who works in the security business, still in mourning over the death of his son, who while on vacation meets a woman he saves from an attempted suicide. He learns that her son has been kidnapped and agrees to help find the boy, and while this sounds like a more or less routine thriller, there were some neat twists on the way to the ending. There were also quite a few quiet but beautifully crafted sentences and passages. "Abo...

Started this one last night -- yes, right on the heals of the Benyon Rees novel. These are difficult times -- murder and mayhem help provide perspective. Anyway, from the very first page, I felt relief at being in the hands of a pro. There may be something to be said for authoring dozens of books. Pronzini's confidence in himself drives the characters and the scenery, allowing the reader to surrender, relax, enjoy the ride. So far, so good.Finished this last night at Reagan National -- left it s...

Excellent story. It moves along quickly and the information about the desert is interesting.

FIVE SOLID STARS! Here is proof of why Bill Pronzini was given Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Pronzini's writing flows simply, as he crafts wonderful mysteries that grab you. He has written quite a few mysteries with a protagonist who is called "Nameless Detective." I've read most those mysteries and followed along as ND solves one case after another. It's a great series. However this book is a stand-alone that introduces Rick Fallon, who seeks quiet places like the dese...

To say Pronzini writes "detective stories" is much like saying Hemingway wrote "travel and adventure" books. While the styles are different, Pronzini's prose is as lyrical and dense, and you come to know his protagonist well. The plots involve microcosms of the cosmic struggles faced by us all, without any false sentimentality or romanticizing. Not Euripides, but for a fun read with meat, you can't beat Pronzini.

Trying to recover from a recent divorce and the death of his young son three years before, former MP and now working security for a major California corporation, Rick Fallon finds solace and comfort in the desert – in Death Valley.Hiking and camping there he stumbles across an abandoned car and then sees the body of a woman, still barely alive not far away. Reviving and rescuing her, she tells him of her divorced husband kidnapping their young boy, of her desperate search for her son, and her de...

A bunch of dumb characters and an unbelievable story, including the end-ridiculous

I guess this guy wrote 70 novels. I got half-way through this before I decided it was a complete waste of time. Stupid, stupid dialogue that seems totally fomulaic. Preposterous plot. Don't waste your time.

I've read now at least three of Bill Pronzini's recent stand alones and came away a big fan of each. This latest hardcover from Walker concerns Rick Fallon, an ex-Army MP and security officer, who reminds me of the early Nameless Detective titles. The Other Side Silence takes place in Vegas, Death Valley, and San Diego. Great noirish story with a tender side, too.

Yet another recommendation from my father! I was not terribly excited/hopeful for this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. The protagonist, Rick Fallon, was appealing in his earnestness to do good in the world. he may be looking for redemption, but I don't feel that it was truly necessitated by the events with which he determined it. But, not my life! Fallon comes upon a woman near death on an excursion in the desert. He saves the woman's life, helps her track down her missing child, and saves...

No good deed goes unpunished.

C'mon, that ending was ridiculous. Fallen and his replacement kid live happily ever after in Death Valley. . .

The protagonist has a son who died in an accident while he was at work, a wife who left him for another man, and nothing to look forward to except camping out in Death Valley. Yet he becomes a one-man rescue operation--helpful, trustworthy, kind and clever throughout the story. He is an anti-anti-hero, I suppose. He is kind of boring.

This is first book I've read by this author, but it won't be the last. I can't honestly remember how/why it ended up in my reading pile, probably Sacto Bee book reviews or NY Times best seller list.If you like mysteries, this author has a nice clean, simple style of writing. Light fare, but goes down easy. A good choice when you don't want to think too much, and are looking for a fairly quick read.Evidently he has done a series and I'll probably do those -- I really like getting to know characte...

PROTAGONIST: Rick FallonSETTING: Death Valley and Las VegasRATING: 3.5Rick Fallon has escaped from a marriage that was suffocating him to the core. Unlike his former wife, Geena, he has a high need to spend time with himself, to experience deep quietude. For him, the ultimate place to spend his life is the desert of Death Valley. In addition to its general lack of settlement, it offers a wide variety of settings, ranging from the dry, flat sands to hills and canyons that provide endless explorat...

Recent divorcee Rick Fallon heads to Death Valley on vacation, rescues woman almost dead in desert, decides to help her find her kidnapped son. I liked Rick and the writing, will be reading more Pronzini.

This is a short book about a recently divorced man who is back packing in Death Valley National Park one day, when he notices a woman who may be dead. She's not, but she's in bad shape due to dehydration and exposure. He manages to revive her, etc. Later it developes that this was a suicide attempt. She had wanted to end it all because her vile ex-husband had kidnapped their son and then disappeared.