Early graves : a Dave Brandstetter novel | Collections | The Huntington

Early graves : a Dave Brandstetter novel | Collections | The Huntington

You might also be interested in

Image not available
Skinflick : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"Lon Tooker certainly fits the profile: big, strong, a Marine Corps veteran, and recently the target of evangelical crusader Gerald Dawson's wrath. Tooker's adult toys and pornography store on the local skid row has recently become the target of Dawson's church men's group and their destructive masked raids on 'un-Christian' businesses. When Dawson is strangled to death by someone of Tooker's size and ability, the police see a smut-peddler with a motive. Case closed. Death claims investigator Dave Brandstetter doesn't like it. By all accounts Tooker is a softy incapable of such a crime. Actual evidence is nonexistent and assumptions many. And Dave particularly doesn't care for assumptions based on someone's sex life. But Dave is also navigating new personal territory. His father's death has left him bereaved and for the first time in a long time without a job. Dave quit the insurance company his father built and has struck out on his own as a private investigator. Add in his breakup with his recent partner and he's a man unencumbered. It's the late 1970s and Dave may be aging a bit but he's still handsome, wealthy, and recently in possession of a new convertible Triumph. Looks like it's not all hard work"--Back cover.
642328
Image not available
Nightwork : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"Gifford Gardens has seen better days. As white families move away to the suburbs to flee the flooding and neglect, the city in turn cares less about fixing the problems. What was once a nice neighborhood has become a slum and a violent battleground for rival gangs. Paul and Angela Myers are among the white families that remained. With the economy in a downturn and wages frozen, Paul takes a job long-haul truck driving. The freight he moves around is strictly 'no questions,' but Paul is an honest man and begins to wonder about what he has become a part of. One night, Paul's truck flies off a cliff and explodes in midair. Did he fall asleep at the wheel, or was he murdered? Paul's life insurance company hires renowned private investigator Dave Brandstetter to look at inconsistencies with the accident. While digging into Paul's past, Dave will uncover a haunting connection between Paul's untimely death and the happier years in the declining neighborhood of Gifford Gardens. Meanwhile Dave and his lover, reporter Cecil Harris, have settled in together quite cozily. Cecil has recovered from the injuries he received helping Dave on his previous case, but the psychological damage is still present. Dave can't help wondering if he will ever be able to protect Cecil from his dangerous line of work"-- Back cover.
642330
Image not available
Obedience : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"As an insurance investigator, Dave Brandstetter built a reputation unraveling suspicious deaths. Now, well into middle age, he has decided to retire for the sake of Cecil, the young TV reporter who loves and cherishes him, and has too often risked his own life for Dave's work. But retirement does not come easily. Dave never did it for the money. He always had that. Nor did he tirelessly work cases in hopes of chasing renown. It was always the pursuit of the truth that drove Dave. He enjoyed the truth's habit of coming into direct conflict with bigotry, allowing him to surprise the small-minded along the way. It doesn't take much arm twisting, then, to get Dave back in the saddle when an old friend in the public defender's office asks him to help Andy Flanagan, a shiftless young man accused of murdering a Vietnamese businessman to defend the Old Fleet--a shantytown of houseboats that has been earmarked for development. Beneath the surface of this oil-slicked slum lurks an international conspiracy so appalling that Dave will regret postponing his retirement"--Back cover.
642333
Image not available
The boy who was buried this morning : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"The loss of a dear friend has retired P.I. Dave Brandstetter in a funk. The 1980s haven't been kind to Los Angeles, either, and the city Dave loves seems to be vanishing before his eyes. Dave isn't getting any younger, and his boyfriend, Cecil, is happy to see Dave's days of working dangerous jobs behind him. But Cecil also recognizes that work may be the investigator's best way out of his recent depression. When a former work colleague of Cecil's is shot by a live round at a paintball park in rural Southern California, he decides to encourage Dave to look into it. The deceased wasn't exactly someone Cecil or Dave would mourn. Vaughn Thomas was a troubled young man; a silver spoon elite who dabbled in militias and weekend warrior games while cultivating his connections with fellow white supremacists. Vaughn would have hated everything about Dave and Cecil, but it doesn't take long for the old investigator to see that the official story is anything but right. 'Emotions doesn't change facts,' Dave once told Cecil, but as Dave dips his toes deeper into the case, he quickly realizes that facts have a hard time with bigotry and bullets"--Back cover.
642334
Image not available
Fadeout : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"Five decades after its original landmark publication, Joseph Hansen's 'Fadeout' is as fresh and important as ever. Preceded only by a handful of gay protagonists in crime fiction, Hansen's Dave Brandstetter, a ruggedly handsome World War II vet with a quick wit, a faultless moral compass, and endless confidence, broke the mold and won over a large reading audience, a feat previously considered impossible for queer fiction. Set in the mid-1960s, 'Fadeout' centers on the disappearance of a Southern California radio personality named Fox Olson. A failed writer, Olson finally found success as a beloved folk singer and wholesome country raconteur with a growing national audience. The community is therefore shocked when Olson's car is found wrecked, having been driven off a bridge and swept away in a fast-moving arroyo on a rainy night. A life insurance claim is filed by Olson's widow and the company holding the policy sends their best man to investigate. The problem is that Olson's body was never found. Not in the car. Not farther down the river. As Dave Brandstetter begins his investigation, he quickly finds that none of it adds up"--From back cover.
642324
Image not available
Gravedigger : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"Two years ago Charles Westover disgraced himself and his family when he was disbarred for bribery. Westover's daughter Serenity, disgusted with her once beloved father, ran away to a cult founded by a mesmerizingly handsome young man, a self-appointed messiah going by the grimly grandiose name of Azrael. The whereabouts of Serenity pass unknown for years until the police raid Azrael's compound and discover that the cult leader lived up to his ghastly 'Angel of Death' moniker. Thinking his daughter has been murdered, Charles Westover claims her life insurance, and then he too vanishes. Insurance companies don't like to cut a check without a body and especially don't like when the recepient [that is, recipient] is also missing. Hired as a private investigator, David Brandstetter quickly finds himself in a complicated maze of lies and hidden histories. It's not all bad times and extreme hazard for our man Dave. A passionate romance has entered his life with the reappearance of Cecil Harris, a handsome young African American investigative reporter for the local news station looking to get to the bottom of a different kind of story"--Back cover.
642329