From Publishers Weekly
For mystery readers mysteriously unacquainted with Hansen's Dave Brandstetter, this will be a good introduction. Brandstetter, officially retired as a private eye, accedes to his lover Cecil's request to investigate the death of Vaughn Thomas, a co-worker at Channel 3 shot in a "combat pursuit" game by a real gun, not a paintball. Traveling to the home town of the young woman Thomas lived with, Brandstetter arrives just after she's murdered and her young son wounded. On a course marked by a right-wing paramilitary group, a jealous ex-husband and Thomas's hard-driving marketing-consultant stepmother (none of them nice), Hansen guides us in spare, smooth prose to a satisfying conclusion. Brandstetter's homosexuality is treated lightly--a boy in the paramilitary group has "pretty arms"--and his age isn't avoided: he needs his reading glasses. A worthy addition to classic Southern California detective stories.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter adds yet another adventure to his list when he attempts to find out who shot an arrogant young man at an outdoor war games center near Los Angeles. Newscaster/lover Cecil remains in the background as Dave questions the dead man's wealthy parents, follows the man's jumpy girlfriend to Winter Creek, runs afoul of a dangerous, neofascist military group in the area, and outwits the not-so-clever-after-all culprit. Hansen is completely familiar with his characters and the mechanics of plotting, and he offers a tightly woven, motion-filled (but largely emotionless) construct that should appeal to many.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
