Customer Reviews

Death Claims (Dave Brandstetter Mysteries)

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Sub-Title: A Dave Brandstetter Mystery

This is the second of the Dave Brandstetter novels to be reprinted. Dave was the "first and most venerable gay detective" a real shocker thirty years ago. Dave also didn't fit the image if a gay man. He was good sized and a hard boiled detective, just like the other heros of the day. All in all there were twelve Dave brandstetter mysteries. The first, Fadeout, was published in 1972. The last, A Country of Old Men, was published in 1990.

Dave's nominal gig is investigating insurance claims. But in these books it's not insurance fraud that he investigates but murder. Well it could have been an accident. And when the beneficiary of the life insurance policy has gone missing....

Ever since I got hold of the first book in the Brandstetter series, I've been wanting to read the rest as well. Unfortunately some of them are out of print and hard to come by. So I was happy I found this one.

It's a pleasant read. The characters are well built, the story is solid and it's nice to read about how people lived in the 1970s. The gay-interest bit is a nice change from the womanisers and misanthropes that populate most detective novels too.

In Death Claims, the second Dave Brandstetter mystery, our intrepid insurance claims investigator is looking into a death that might be accident, suicide or murder. If its murder there are many suspects to choose from but number one is the victim's handsome young son who might be gay, but also include the ex-wife and a famous unmarried overtly Christian film star with a secret inclination, plus a few more possibles.

While following each lead in his quite unflappable manner Dave is also trying to rebuild his personal life. At the conclusion of the opening novel Fadeout, Dave met Doug. Now they have been living together for some months but neither seems able to forget their former loves. Dave blames Doug for hanging on to too many mementoes of the past, but is the problem all one sided?

Well observed and finely detailed Death Claims is a worthy successor to Fadeout, the balance between Dave's private life and the mystery plot is just right. (Yet there is enough information here that the story can stand on its own.) The result is a fascinating story which will keep the reader guessing right up to the last page.

This was my first book by Hansen, best known for the Dave Brandstetter series. This was the second Brandstetter novel, written in 1973.

I wasn't as impressed by the hard-boiled diction and prose as other readers seem to be. It worked well at some moments for me, but felt a bit forced in others. Hansen was very skilled at plot points, but seemed to me less skilled at characters and their motivation.

The Brandstetter novels are, of course, mostly famous for featuring one of the first openly gay detectives. One of the things I liked about the book is how Brandstetter's sexuality is written in precisely as it would be with a heterosexual detective-- present but not the point. And I have to admire that he wrote this book nearly 30 years ago.

I liked it. It was a quick and pleasant read. I didn't quite love it. Hansen comes highly recommended, however, and there was enough here for me to pick up others as I find them. Decent entertainment, in any case.