Customer Reviews

Skinflick: A Dave Brandstetter Mystery

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Skinflick, the fifth of the Dave Brandstetter mysteries, involves the murder of Gerald Dawson, a church goer with a reputation for zero tolerance of all that he believes wrong. Imprisoned is the accused, the affable owner of a pornshop recently ransacked by Dawson and his cronies. However Dave thinks that the victim's family maybe involved. The cast of characters includes Dawson's business partner who has a penchant for young boys and girls; a maker of films of dubious reputation who has a liking for boys as girls; and a young TV who takes a liking to Dave.

One of the charms of these mysteries is the ongoing story of Dave's personal life (so don't read the rest of this paragraph if you haven't read the previous stories and don't want anything revealed) Following the death of his father and chairman of Medallion, the insurance company he worked for, Dave is now freelancing, and he soon finds himself enlisting the help of another recently unemployed claims investigator, Delgado. He also finds himself coming up with a way of helping his widowed and very young step-mother come to terms with her loss at the same time as moving into his new home, having finally parted with Doug.

Events climaxes with an even greater life and death situation than perhaps the previous stories, but the rest is as filled with the detailed observation with which we are familiar.

When a highly religious and widely respected churchman is found with his neck broken on his own front step, insurance investigator David Brandstetter has questions--and they lead in some extremely unsavory directions in this classically styled California P.I. tale, directions that include the tawdry underbelly of prostitution, adult bookstores, and pornography.

This 1979 novel by Josephy Hansen is written in a style that calls to mind the best of such writers as James M. Cain: less of a detective story or murder mystery than a hard-as-nails action novel, Hansen's prose is clean, unsentimental, detailed, occasionally witty, and somewhat bitter. The hero of the piece is a bit unusual, for Hansen's David Brandstetter is a gay man. Some readers may be put off by this, but it will be their loss, for it gives the novel an edge of interest too often lacking in the genre, and even the most demanding reader will have no complaint with the fast-paced, action-laced, and very gritty story. Recommended--if you can find it.