Dave Brandstetter Private Eye Novel S.

5 primary works

Fadeout

by Joseph Hansen

Published 16 November 1972

Fadeout is the first of Joseph Hansen's twelve classic mysteries featuring rugged Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who is contentedly gay. When entertainer Fox Olson's car plunges off a bridge in a storm, a death claim is filed, but where is Olson's body? As Brandstetter questions family, fans, and detractors, he grows certain Olson is still alive and that Dave must find him before the would-be killer does. Suspenseful and wry, shrewd and deeply felt, Fadeout remains as fresh today as when it startled readers more than thirty years ago.

Death Claims

by Joseph Hansen

Published September 1974

Death Claims is the second of Joseph Hansen's acclaimed mysteries featuring ruggedly masculine Dave Brandstetter, a gay insurance investigator. When John Oats's body is found washed up on a beach, his young lover April Stannard is sure it was no accident. Brandstetter agrees: Oats's college-age son, the beneficiary of the life insurance policy, has gone missing.

Troublemaker

by Joseph Hansen

Published May 1975

After forty years, Hammett has a worthy successor' The Times

Dave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay.

Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald.

Rick Wendell never made an enemy in his life, but he died all the same; and Larry Johns was found standing over him with the gun in his hand still smoking. Only Dave can't see it as an open-and-shut case - what was Johns' motive? What happened to the cash Wendell withdrew that day? As his investigation progresses, he comes to realise the danger of assumptions, particularly where love and money are involved.

The Man Everyone Was Afraid of

by Joseph Hansen

Published 2 October 1978

Police Chief Ben Orton had a gift for making enemies. When his body was found, head smashed in, the people of his seaside domain were shocked--less because of the gruesome murder than because someone had finally dared to cross Ben Orton.

Skinflick

by Joseph Hansen

Published 1 October 1980

'After forty years, Hammett has a worthy successor' The Times

Dave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay.

Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and MacDonald.

Gerald Dawson was an angry man, a fundamentalist who wanted to rid the world of everything he feared and hated. So when he is found murdered, there are plenty of suspects: most obviously the owner of the pornshop he had repeatedly attacked. But Dave knows something doesn't add up, and as he travels from church to X-rated film set, from teenage prostitutes to upstanding preachers, he finds the trail leading somewhere altogether unexpected.