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Early Graves A Brandstetter Mystery Joseph Hansen 9781842430637 Books

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Early Graves A Brandstetter Mystery Joseph Hansen 9781842430637 Books

This is a well written mystery and a walk back into the not distant past when fear and homophobia killed. as surely as aids.


Tags : Early Graves (A Brandstetter Mystery) [Joseph Hansen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The 9th novel in the Dave Brandstetter PI series, Dave Brandstetter, is called upon to track down a serial killer operating in and around Los Angeles who has been killing gay men who have AIDS. 'The most exciting and effective writer of the classic private-eye novel working today' -LA Times 'After 40 years,Joseph Hansen,Early Graves (A Brandstetter Mystery),Gardners Books,1842430637,Crime & mystery,MysterySuspense

Early Graves A Brandstetter Mystery Joseph Hansen 9781842430637 Books Reviews

Hansen wrote many mystery novels featuring the Dave Brandstetter character, a whiskey-drinking insurance investigator who is also gay. Inevitably, Brandstetter ends up solving crimes that the police cannot. "Early Graves" is one of the better books in the series. A few screwed-up characters, some baffling murders, along with Brandstetter's turbulent relationship with another man combine to make for a very engrossing novel. Hansen has a deft touch as a writer, weaving a good story and creating interesting characters.
"Early Graves" is yet another installment of the Brandstetter mystery series by Joseph Hansen. This time Dave Brandstetter, our gay insurance investigator, goes beyond his job duties to solve a murder where the body was dumped at his doorstep. In the ensuing couple hundred pages we are treated to a mishmash of gay stereotypical characters, some violence, ... and lots of tedium. The surprise ending disappoints as well.

Bottom line one of those books one can describe as "meh".
This is another very good book in Joseph Hansen's Dave Brandstetter series. The series has now moved into the mid-1980s, and the AIDS epidemic is gathering momentum, a matter of obvious concern to Dave who is gay.

Dave returns home from a business trip to find a man who has been knifed to death in his courtyard. Dave's business card is lying at the man's feet, but Dave does not recognize him. The man appears to be the latest victim of a killer who has been targeting young gay men who are dying of AIDS.

This particular victim turns out to be a developer named Drew Dodge. Since Dodge died at his doorstep, Dave feels a responsibility to investigate the crime. Dave's personal life is also in turmoil, given that his lover, Cecil, is now involved with someone else. Dave is feeling adrift and tired and is thinking it's about time to hang up his license.

The investigation takes Dave across the larger Los Angeles metropolitan area, into neighborhoods good and bad. It quickly becomes apparent that someone, most likely the killer, does not want Dave pursuing the investigation, and Dave soon finds himself at risk. That will not deter him, of course, and he will doggedly pursue the case, no matter the personal cost.

Hansen never disappoints and certainly does not do so here. He's excellent at plotting a story, setting a scene and developing in the reader a real sense of the humanity of all the characters. This is a particularly gripping book because of the fact that the scourge of AIDS has now been introduced into American life and into the lives of Dave and his friends. As if life wasn't hard enough for gay people like Dave, it's about to get even more difficult and emotionally devastating. In a book that's allegedly about a series of horrific crimes, Hansen captures this situation expertly and with deep feeling.
3.5 of 5 stars –
I love gay mysteries and romances, and this has been one of the best series combining both, and in the process rightfully became for Joseph Hansen a classic in gay literature. Even though it wasn't as good as the earlier high-quality ones, this ninth in the series was still good and continued to build the story.

I liked this for the same reasons I liked each in the series. First off, for those interested, it worked well as a standalone, with its own self-contained mystery, while also further developing the character and life of the MC, his boyfriend and other supporting characters, and smoothly providing any explanations needed to bring a first-time reader up on previous happenings.

Also, it was a nice, short, easy read, with a good, well-paced plot and character development. I enjoyed the walk back in time to my earlier years, with moments of what was then current situations and culture vividly described by Hansen in a way that helped me remember those times. And I liked that the main focus was on the mystery, with the gay aspect and any romance as a major subplot. The mystery itself was engaging and suspenseful, with the investigation having realistic twists and turns. It had a refreshing approach of not featuring your typical detective or PI but an insurance investigator pursuing the clues. I appreciated where this one took us back into the gay world of LA, where for the first time in Hansen's stories (early for the 80's) the issue of AIDS played a prominent part. This made the title have a poignant double meaning to me, referring not only to the serial killings, but to the devastation of AIDS. Still, some of the story was predictable, maybe even stereotypical, not as unique as previous mysteries (maybe as seen by my latter-day eyes), and a couple things a little too convenient. Even so, I got a feel for what the AIDS hysteria was like at that time, from someone writing about it at the time it was happening.

Hansen also developed nicely the whole set of characters. Of course there was more on the MC, with Hansen really getting into the life and mindset of a hard-boiled, matter-of-fact, honorable, self-accepting, sometimes melancholy gay man who I grew to like for all his skills, heart and humanness. As for the supporting cast, I also got a good feel for who they were, with some new ones to keep things fresh. For those who read the previous books, it was nice that some characters returned; but don't worry first-time readers, they were introduced and described just as if it’s a standalone. A nice bonus has been the MC’s gay life and relationships, and I was pleased to see his relationship continued with his boyfriend. They had to deal with some rough spots that can be realistically expected; but the motivation for these wasn't quite believable to me, and I felt a little distant this time. Another nice, realistic developing element was that also for the first time, the MC's aging started to be mentioned as more of an issue, which put his putting himself in danger in a new perspective.

I continue to be impressed with the level of quality that Hansen maintains in this series, and I look forward to the next one.
So happy to complete my ancient paperback collection. The 4 stars is for the condition. This book was in decent shape, but maybe not quite as good as I'd wish for in an ideal world. Price was good. Delivery quick.
Hansen is a very engaging writer of complex mysteries. The only way to improve them would be to add some sexual content, but its absence is understandable given that they were written in the 80s.
This is a well written mystery and a walk back into the not distant past when fear and homophobia killed. as surely as aids.