EPITAPHS

Good news for ``Nameless'' fans: He's finally quit brooding/whining/obsessing about that time in the cabin (cf. Shackles). Here, he agrees to help out Pietro Lombardi, an elderly paesano whose favorite grandchild, Gianna, has been accused of stealing two thousand dollars from her landlord Jack Bisconti. Although Bisconti quickly drops the charge, Gianna's pretty roommate seems on edge, and nobody's seen Gianna for several days. Then the pretty roommate is murdered, and a quick once-over of the apartment convinces Nameless that the two young women were high- priced call-girls. Further investigation leads him to their pimp, several johns, and a gruesome, illegal, late-night cockfight at the ranch of the wealthy Valconazzis. There'll be another murder, some kinky sex revelations, and a disinterment at gunpoint before Nameless once again faces old Lombardi, and his bocce-playing best friend, to finally discuss the plight of the two girls. Oversimple but exquisitely rendered—from the disillusioned goombah to the despairing Nameless, at a loss as to how to keep his partner Eberhardt from calling it quits (he can't).