Rare Books
Obedience : a Dave Brandstetter novel
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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.
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The little dog laughed : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"Journalist Adam Streeter covered some of the most dangerous stories of the last quarter century, ranging from Cambodia to Siberia and anywhere troubled in between. Fearless, dashing, and more than a little resourceful, Streeter was renowned as much for his virtuosic writing as the shocking reality of what he uncovered along the way. Why would someone who lived so purposefully and with such demonstrable bravery turn a pistol on himself? Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter has seen enough suicides to know this isn't one. Suspecting treachery, he digs into Adam's last story--an unpublished investigation into the whereabouts of a vanished South American strong man, called El Carnicero, the Butcher--and finds that Adam's death shows every hallmark of his bloody style. Dave quickly realized that some very powerful people would like him to drop the case. Dave's own lover, Cecil, would like to see him take it easy for once. But Cecil knows Brandstetter is not so unlike the man whose death he's investigating. The truth, to someone like Brandstetter or Streeter, is worth the ultimate price. As he attempts to finish Adam's story and get to the bottom of the journalist's death, Dave will find more than a few people willing to make him pay it"--Back cover.
642331
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A country of old men : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"The wear and tear of a life spent pursuing the truth into harm's way is catching up with Dave. In fact, it has already caught him. The aged death claims investigator is old enough for his body to hurt even without all the compiled injuries he's sustained throughout his career. Yet when presented with a puzzle-like mystery, Dave can't help but be drawn in. Walking on the beach, a friend finds a bedraggled child who claims he has witnessed a murder. The victim is a drug-addicted pop star, and the obvious suspect is the dead man's ex-girlfriend--a drug addict whom the child saw standing over the body, gun in hand. In the final installment of Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking series, Dave looks for justice once more, hoping that he will also find a lasting measure of peace. Over the course of twelve novels spanning three decades of American culture--from the 1960s to the late 1980s--Joseph Hansen gave readers one of the truly great heroes of detective fiction"--Back cover.
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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
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Death claims : a Dave Brandstetter novel
Rare Books
"Since a burning accident that left him painfully disfigured, John Oats, a well-liked collectible book dealer, has been self-isolating at his beach house in Arena Blanca, California. An avid swimmer, John Oats had taken to night swimming to hide his injuries from daytime beachgoers. When his body is found one morning smashed against the rocks at the treacherous point near the house, the authorities rule it 'Death by Misadventure.' Insurance companies don't much care for verdicts like that and therefore Medallion Insurance, the policy holder for Oats's substantial life insurance policy, sends out its best investigator, Dave Brandstetter, to poke holes in the story. The night Oats died there was a dangerous storm along the coast, and Brandstetter finds it hard to believe that the bookseller, a lifelong swimmer, would have gone out. As his investigation reveals more of John Oats's sad story Brandstetter learns that the motives for murder are many. But Brandstetter has his own problems to deal with. Still mourning the death of his partner, Rod, Dave is navigating his own twilight world of grief. His new lover, Doug, is also grieving, and the two men must come to a reckoning of whether their love is an ersatz stand-in for their lost partners or something more"--Back cover.
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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.
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