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Gravedigger A Brandstetter mystery Joseph Hansen 9781874061830 Books

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Gravedigger A Brandstetter mystery Joseph Hansen 9781874061830 Books

One of the many things i love about this series is how the reader shares Dave's moods, and for this reason, this is probably my favorite in the series so far. I love Dave's and Cecil's relationship and how it sets the pace - there's an almost bubbling excitement running through this book (all being relative).


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Gravedigger A Brandstetter mystery Joseph Hansen 9781874061830 Books Reviews

First published in 1982, this is the sixth entry in Joseph Hansen's series featuring Dave Brandstetter, the first openly gay detective to inhabit the world originally occupied by Philip Marlowe and other such giants of the P.I. genre.

Dave is now working for the Banner Insurance Company. A young woman named Serenity Westover has been missing for a couple of years, after falling under the spell of a nutcase named Azrael, who is something of a mash-up of Jim Jones and Charles Manson. The cops have invaded the ranch occupied by Azrael and his followers, and they have discovered the graves of several young women, one of whom may be Serenity.

Serenity's life had been insured by Banner and her father, Charles Westover, a disbarred lawyer, files a death claim. But when Dave attempts to interview her father, Westover is nowhere to be found. His house is empty and apparently hasn't been occupied for at least a couple of weeks.

Naturally, Dave is not going to sign off on the claim unless and until he can interview Westover and ensure that Serenity is, in fact, dead. But Dave's effort to discover the missing father leads him deeper and deeper into a world of old secrets that a lot of people would rather not see exhumed, and before long, he finds himself in serious trouble. At the same time, he's settling into a new relationship with a much younger man, and that is causing him problems as well.

This is a very entertaining book from a day and age when P.I. genre novels were still relatively short and tightly focused. Brandstetter is a character unique in the annals of crime fiction, especially for the early 1980s, and this is a book that should appeal to anyone interested in the evolution of this genre.
Gravedigger is the sixth book in the Dave Brandstetter series and I think I can talk about a common schema of the Dave Brandsttetter mystery

*At the beginning our insurance investigator appears at the door/porch of a person who filed an insurance claim.

* Something doesn't fit, it is why his insurance company is nervous, and it is why the best man has to clear the situation. He asks questions. He lets his clients know that something in this death case wasn't quite kosher.

* He investigates on his own. Mostly it is a careful analytic work- that still keeps you on the edge of your seat- and ends almost always in a breath-taking actions that convinces the theory about a secret army of guardian angels on Dave's side.

* He narrowly escapes death, but the difficult case is solved.

* A private life? It remains blurred in the background.

Gravedigger was not much different comparing to a commonly flow of the mystery, but it was different in regard to a private life of Dave Brandstetter. He is in love! O lala!

And this private part of his life is not just on the periphery of the plot, it is an essential part of it! I would even say, that there are two parallel stories to follow- the first one is his job, the second one – his private situation.

One more difference to the previous sequels- the ending.
Yes, it was, as always, full of thrilling scenes at the end.
But I had suddenly more unanswered questions as normally.
Not a lot, but nevertheless. No, I won't name it a cliffhanger, but it was something that will force me read the next sequel ASAP.

The writing? It's s Hansen. Period.
5.0 of 5 stars –
I love gay mysteries and romances, and this has been one of the best series combining both, and in the process rightfully became for Joseph Hansen a classic in gay literature. This sixth in the series was the best so far and continued to build the story.

I liked this for the same reasons I liked each in the series. First off, for those interested, it worked well as a standalone, with its own self-contained mystery, while also further developing the character and life of the MC, his boyfriends and other supporting characters, and smoothly providing any explanations needed to bring a first-time reader up on previous happenings. However, unlike the others, this one did end with a loose end leaving you wondering, which was great for those going on to the next one, but left it to speculation for those who aren’t.

Also, it was a nice, short, easy read, with a good, well-paced plot and character development. I enjoyed the walk back in time to my earlier years, with moments of what was then current situations and culture vividly described by Hansen in a way that helped me remember those times. And I liked that the main focus was on the mystery, with the gay aspect and any romance as a major subplot. The mystery itself was engaging and suspenseful, with the investigation having realistic twists and turns. It had a refreshing approach of not featuring your typical detective or PI but an insurance investigator pursuing the clues. It was both the mystery combined with the MC’s life being more prominent that made me like this the most. The details and secrets behind the cult, the missing daughter and then her father kept me guessing, and I enjoyed the settings with the MC venturing out into other parts of California.

Hansen also developed nicely the whole set of characters. Of course there was more on the MC, with Hansen really getting into the life and mindset of a hard-boiled, matter-of-fact, honorable, self-accepting, sometimes melancholy gay man who I grew to like for all his skills, heart and humanness. As for the supporting cast, I also got a good feel for who they were, with some new ones to keep things fresh. For those who read the previous books, it was nice that some characters returned; but don't worry first-time readers, they were introduced and described just as if it’s a standalone. A nice bonus has been the MC’s gay life and relationships, and in this one I was pleasantly surprised that I liked just as much that his private life came closer to sharing equal billing with the mystery. He got a jump start with a new boyfriend, and I loved the interracial, intergenerational diversity this introduced and the realistic issues this brought up. And I enjoyed the relationship he’s built with friends, including his father’s wife, and independently, it bringing up such issues in the gay world as infidelity.

I continue to be impressed with the level of quality that Hansen maintains in this series, and I look forward to the next one.
I think the mystery in this book was as solid as in other books, but as a romance lover (AND mystery lover), I really appreciated that in this one Hansen gives us a bit more romance. I think he can write romance much better than many pure romance writers that I read. ).
One of the many things i love about this series is how the reader shares Dave's moods, and for this reason, this is probably my favorite in the series so far. I love Dave's and Cecil's relationship and how it sets the pace - there's an almost bubbling excitement running through this book (all being relative).