Books like Shackles

This seventeenth entry in the Nameless Detective series may be the best so far. And it is a significant departure from the rest of the series.Although the plot is familiar, it is a significant departure from the rest of the series, derived more from movie thrillers than detective adventures. One night, leaving his girlfriend Kerry’s apartment, Nameless is waylaid by a man in a ski mask with a gun. Bent on revenge, he chloroforms our hero and drives him to a cabin in the woods. Once there, he shackles Nameless to the wall, leaves him with enough food for thirteen weeks, saying he will be back for the body four months or so. Nameless, in course of his ordeal, decides he has three important task ahead of him: 1) devise a means of escape, 2) identify his assailant (why thirteen weeks?), and 3) track him down and kill him.As regular readers of the series know, Nameless is an ethical, compassionate, and easygoing detective. But his ordeal in the woods and the requirements of survival have changed him by the time of his escape. He feels no qualm about his murderous revenge. He breaks into houses, scavengers; soon after he is carrying a gun.The story of Shackles is a tale of revenge, but it is also a story of a traumatized man who eventually reclaims his full humanity again. During his imprisonment Nameless keeps a journal, and we learn something of his father and mother, something about his motivations. We also witness a suspenseful journey on snow shoes, meet a few interesting characters, and enjoy one roaring good fight. Eventually we are led to a satisfying conclusion which reveals a poignant fact about Nameless' assailant too.All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable mystery.