Death Claims

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.

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.

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....

Bookseller John Oats has been found dead in the Pacific Ocean. The death has been ruled accidental, perhaps suicide. This explanation doesn't satisfy insurance claims investigator Dave Brandstetter. He comes to believe Oats was murdered for his considerable policy and sets out to find the culprit. Whodunit? Oats's elusive son? The closeted, all-American TV star? A washed up screenwriter? Or maybe even Oats young lover, a woman who took care of the man until his dying day?This is a beautifully written page turn, very smooth and very engaging. Brandstetter is no angst-torn hero despairing of the state of the world. He's a solid, mature professional out to do his job (though not without his own personal problems). Though the killer's identity should be obvious, Hansen weaves the story in such fashion that we are still surprised to find out who done it.If Hansen has a flaw as a writer, it might be his relentless need to describe all exteriors and interiors, even those that play a scant role in the story. The abundance of detail and description bogs the story down some. But not much. After all Hansen is doing his storyteller's duty to put the reader into the world he has created.

Dave Brandstetter, a claims investigator for Medallion Life Insurance Company, is checking into bookseller John Oat's 'death by misadventure.' The misadventure was a drowning that took place in the ocean. At night. During a rainstorm. After Oats decided to change his insurance policy so that his son wouldn't inherit. Yeah, it's a little suspicious, and it doesn't help that the son is now missing. Maybe this doesn't sound that thrilling (insurance claims? ), but Hansen, frequently compared to Hammett, Chandler and MacDonald, catches your attention from the first line: "Arena Blancas was right. The sand that bracketed the little bay was so white it hurt the eyes." And he never lets go, never wanders off track through an unexpectedly twisty tale of betrayal and murder. Hansen is that rarity, a brilliant stylist who actually has something to say. Sure, the message is unrelentingly liberal, but it is also tempered with commonsense and compassion. Most impressively, the man knows how to tell a good story. DEATH CLAIMS, book two in the Brandstetter series, is one of the best.