More Oddments cover art

More Oddments

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

More Oddments

By: Bill Pronzini
Narrated by: Daniel Dorse
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

More Oddments features 14 more detective stories featuring characters such as Fergus O'Hara and the "Nameless" Detective. The stories included in this collection are:

  • "Fergus O'Hara, Detective"
  • "Chip"
  • "Opportunity"
  • "A Craving for Originality"
  • "One of Those Cases (A "Nameless Detective" Story)"
  • "I Didn't Do It"
  • "Quicker Than the Eye (with Michael Kurland)"
  • "Angel of Mercy"
  • "Connoisseur"
  • "Mrs. Rakubian"
  • "Smuggler's Island"
  • "A Taste of Paradise"
  • "Under the Skin"
  • "Prose Bowl (with Barry N. Malzberg)"
©2001 Bill Pronzini (P)2018 David N. Wilson
Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Mystery Detective Suspense
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Until You Are Dead cover art
The Power cover art
Nightmares and Geezenstacks cover art
Perchance to Dream cover art
The Holy cover art
Meet the Tiger cover art
The Gideon Lowry Key West Mysteries: Box Set cover art
Hopscotch cover art
The Roman Hat Mystery cover art
Under the Lake cover art
The Brass Cupcake: A Novel cover art
The Keep cover art
Running Blind cover art
Fear Is the Key cover art
Rogues cover art
Make Room! Make Room! cover art

What listeners say about More Oddments

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

Good, ok and indifferent

Another Audible offering from an author, I'm quite fond of but have neglected somewhat in the past few years. Pronzini has written around 45 mysteries in his San Francisco set, Nameless PI series. It's a series I like and I was bouncing along in 2015/16 at a pace of one a month and got side-tracked at around the dozen mark after reading Nightshades. Don't know why to be honest.

Here he showcases his skills in the short story format and there's a few I really liked, a few that were ok, and a few that weren't especially memorable.


Top bananas.....

Prose Bowl, the finishing piece in the collection is frantic, pacey and tense...... two writers competing under pressure in front of a global audience to pen a novel/novella from scratch, like two boxers going hammer and tongs at each other for twelve rounds ..... word count is critical, penalties exist for repetition and other writerly sins. It shouldn't really work, insofar as it sounds totally preposterous but it does.

Opportunity..... two cop partners, one skint and ill and deferring an operation and keeping his condition from his wife and his boss, go after a perp and come back with a corpse and a case full of cash. Opportunity, trust between partners and temptation I liked the ambiguity of the ending.

One of those Cases has Nameless on a domestic investigation. An unhappy wife suspects her husband of playing away, Nameless investigates and it's not what she thinks. I liked it without ever being blown away.

In the others, we have......

Chip - a gangster, his son and boarding school - ok

A Craving for Originality - a hack writer wants to spread his wings - alright

I Didn't Do It - a man down on his luck, a cheating couple, a thick wallet, a blow to the head and a confession - irritating

Angel of Mercy - a Civil War era abortionist is taken to task - undecided

Quicker than the Eye - a kind of locked room mystery with a magician/illusionist, his manager and his assistant - enjoyed

Connoisseur - nouveau riche, fine wine, envy and resentment - liked it

Smuggler's Island - family secrets in small town community - enjoyed

Under the Skin - friendship, bravery and cowardice - thoughtful

A Taste of Paradise - a fleeting holiday friendship and some regrets - indifference

Fergus O'Hara, Detective - historic Civil War tale, San Francisco, St Patrick's Day, gamblers, Pinkertons, a steamer, a conman, some missing gold - nice twist, but annoying narration with the faux Irish accent

Mrs Rakubian - subject ???? - forgettable

Like every other collection I've read in the past - a mixed bag.

3 from 5

Read - (listened to) July, 2020
Published - 2001
Page count - 238 (6 hrs 22 mins)
Source - Audible purchase
Format - Audible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!