Pretty Boy Dead

Steve Archer, not yet twenty, is the son of an ambitious and successful black doctor with intentions of entering politics. However Steve does not share his fathers outlook, in turn his behaviour does not meet with his father's approval; they fall out over Steve's intimate activities first with another boy, and then in an attempt to redeem himself, with a white girl. The story opens though with Steve returning to his lover, blue eyed pretty boy Jesse Coy Randol, the night after they had an argument to find the place swarming with police and Coy dead in a pool of blood; Steve is arrested for his murder. Then the story goes back to recount events leading up to the tragedy, his relationship with his family, the girl he gets pregnant, the boys he falls in love with, and his desire to be a successful writer and those who try to help him towards dream, until the story come full circle and then becomes detective thriller. Well written, Hansen's no nonsense prose nonetheless rich in description, Pretty Boy Dead is a thoroughly engrossing story. Filled with fascinating, believable and often appealing characters; Hansen has a way of making all his young men and their activities interesting. Steve the main protagonist , confused, resourceful, often impetuous, but sincere and with an inborn decent moral ethic struggles to do what is right despite all his problems. Everyone falls in love with Coy in spite of his faults. A moving story of love and redemption combined with a well crafted detective who-dunnit, Pretty Boy Dead is a compelling read - one of Hansen's best.

I wouldn't dream of reviewing Mr. Hansen, since he's an idol of mine, but I will add this note: From a Gay point of view, 'Pretty Boy Dead' is a lot sexier than the Dave Brandstetter books the author is justly famous for. It's hardly X-rated, so non-Gay readers will enjoy it too, but it is more explicit; to me that made it surprising, fun, even hot, since I came to this book after discovering 'A Smile in His Lifetime' and then the Brandstetter series. 'Pretty Boy' is clearly a transition book for the author; he begins to feel his power here, he knows he's on the right track. Readers who love Brandstetter but haven't read this one, buy it. Enjoy it. Devour it. When you're done you'll appreciate even more one of the great mystery writers of all time. You'll be ready to click on All Books by Joseph Hansen, because his non-mysteries are quiet works of art.

I love this book. Originally published as KNOWN HOMOSEXUAL, then STRANGER TO HIMSELF, PRETTY BOY DEAD was Hansen's first mystery novel, written under the pseudonym of James Colton. This is everything a mystery novel should be.Briefly, this is the story of Steve who is young, bright and black. Steve's family has all but disowned him, in part due to his marriage (now cracking apart), and partly due to a play Steve wrote. With Steve's future as a playwright indefinitely on hold, Steve has only his love -- Coy Randol -- to keep him warm (which is the equivilent of saying the only good thing is one's life is one's addiction to heroin). Then Coy gets his cute little self murdered, and Steve is the main suspect.This might sound a little dreary, but it's not. For one thing the plot is a classic, and the characters are believable and fresh, not those painfully familiar stereotypes that people most mystery novels (Hansen is like the zen master of characterization: a sentence or two and you swear you know this person). For another thing, PRETTY BOY DEAD is hypnotic, baked in that old Angeleno atmosphere, that Chandleresque ambiance. Every detail--well, I just wish everybody in this genre wrote this marvellously.