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Dave Brandstetter #2
Death Claims
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 Oats's college-age son, the beneficiary of the life insurance, has gone missing.
166 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
63 people are currently reading
427 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Hansen
132 books158 followersJoseph Hansen (1923–2004) was an American author of mysteries. The son of a South Dakota shoemaker, he moved to a California citrus farm with his family in 1936. He began publishing poetry in the New Yorker in the 1950s, and joined the editorial teams of gay magazines ONE and Tangents in the 1960s. Using the pseudonyms Rose Brock and James Colton, Hansen published five novels and a collection of short stories before the appearance of Fadeout (1970), the first novel published under his own name.
The book introduced street-smart insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter, a complex, openly gay hero who grew and changed over the series’s twelve novels. By the time Hansen concluded the series with A Country of Old Men (1990), Brandstetter was older, melancholy, and ready for retirement. The 1992 recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Hansen published several more novels before his death in 2004.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
The book introduced street-smart insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter, a complex, openly gay hero who grew and changed over the series’s twelve novels. By the time Hansen concluded the series with A Country of Old Men (1990), Brandstetter was older, melancholy, and ready for retirement. The 1992 recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Hansen published several more novels before his death in 2004.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
March 20, 2022
If the first book in this detective series from the 1970s, Fadeout, gave readers a gorgeous erection, then the second installment in the series gave readers a limp private dick.
August 3, 2019
Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter has his doubts about the death of John Oats. True, the retired book dealer was dying of cancer, but good swimmers don't usually drown themselves close to the shore. And then of course there's the fact that Oats changed the beneficiary of his life insurance policy just days before his death.
I didn't find the plot as compelling as Brandstetter's first recorded case (Fadeout), but I am still intrigued by his character. He's a thoroughly hardboiled detective who is also a practicing homosexual, and who treats his orientation--as his author treats it--as a given fact of life. This was groundbreaking genre work in the '70's, and it still holds up today.
February 26, 2023
This was a buddy read with my wonderful friends Julie and Mark, and we all agreed on this:
1. This novel was written quickly.
2. Some editing would have been needed.
3. We enjoyed Joseph Hansen's first Brandstetter novel Fadeout more.
My friends disliked this second novel of the Brandstetter series to different degrees. I was the only one that enjoyed it. Here's why:
I like Dave Brandstetter, the insurance detective.
This was written quickly and by reading this slowly I still could enjoy it. There are good things waiting to be found if you do not rush through it. This is an imperfect novel with some good writing.
I have quoted some sentences in my status updates that I liked and/or found interesting. Dave Brandstetter is an insurance investigator. He is driving to Arena Blanca in order to investigate and to look for the beneficiary, young Peter Oats.
Even though the houses there are cheerfully painted on the outside (lavender, blue and pink), the people that (used to) live inside of the pink house are not happy. Neither is Dave.
The bleakness that Dave feels inside - in the beginning of chapter 1 - he sees outside: "The [houses] looked bleak in the winter sun. Above them gulls sheared a sky cheerful as new denim. The bay glinted like blue tile. [...] It was still bleak. So were the rain-greened hills that shut the place off. He drove out of them bleakly. The bleakness was in him."
The life insurance policy holder John Oats has drowned on a rainy night. He is a good swimmer. He usually goes swimming at night (because of the scars on his body), but never when it rains. He must have had company on the night of his death: "[...] on a coffee table stood plates soiled from a meal eaten days ago --- canned roast beef hash, ketchup --- dregs of coffee in cups, half a glass of dead, varnishy liquid, a drink unfinished that never would be finished."
I was interested in learning what happened to John Oats and why. Some descriptions were very good:
"[Dave] couldn't see after the sundazzle outside. Then he heard the squeak of little pulleys. Drapes parted, flowered drapes, bleached at the pleats. The front wall was glass for the view of the bay. It was salt-misted, but it let him see the room. Neglected. Dust blurred the spooled maple of furniture that was old but used to better care."
Some observations were creative:
"[He] dropped slices of bread into a toaster that swallowed them with a growl, like a shiny animal."
Some strange:
"A wastebasket was alone there like a dwarf prince in a dungeon -"
Or interesting/unusual:
"He cracked eggs into a mixing bowl as if they were hateful little skulls."
This novel consists of 23 chapters. In my opinion 2 chapters were badly written. I found plenty good or interesting writing in between the not so well written stuff. It has potential; it just needs editing.
I enjoyed this more than 2 stars. 2.75 stars.
Ebba
1. This novel was written quickly.
2. Some editing would have been needed.
3. We enjoyed Joseph Hansen's first Brandstetter novel Fadeout more.
My friends disliked this second novel of the Brandstetter series to different degrees. I was the only one that enjoyed it. Here's why:
I like Dave Brandstetter, the insurance detective.
This was written quickly and by reading this slowly I still could enjoy it. There are good things waiting to be found if you do not rush through it. This is an imperfect novel with some good writing.
I have quoted some sentences in my status updates that I liked and/or found interesting. Dave Brandstetter is an insurance investigator. He is driving to Arena Blanca in order to investigate and to look for the beneficiary, young Peter Oats.
Even though the houses there are cheerfully painted on the outside (lavender, blue and pink), the people that (used to) live inside of the pink house are not happy. Neither is Dave.
The bleakness that Dave feels inside - in the beginning of chapter 1 - he sees outside: "The [houses] looked bleak in the winter sun. Above them gulls sheared a sky cheerful as new denim. The bay glinted like blue tile. [...] It was still bleak. So were the rain-greened hills that shut the place off. He drove out of them bleakly. The bleakness was in him."
The life insurance policy holder John Oats has drowned on a rainy night. He is a good swimmer. He usually goes swimming at night (because of the scars on his body), but never when it rains. He must have had company on the night of his death: "[...] on a coffee table stood plates soiled from a meal eaten days ago --- canned roast beef hash, ketchup --- dregs of coffee in cups, half a glass of dead, varnishy liquid, a drink unfinished that never would be finished."
I was interested in learning what happened to John Oats and why. Some descriptions were very good:
"[Dave] couldn't see after the sundazzle outside. Then he heard the squeak of little pulleys. Drapes parted, flowered drapes, bleached at the pleats. The front wall was glass for the view of the bay. It was salt-misted, but it let him see the room. Neglected. Dust blurred the spooled maple of furniture that was old but used to better care."
Some observations were creative:
"[He] dropped slices of bread into a toaster that swallowed them with a growl, like a shiny animal."
Some strange:
"A wastebasket was alone there like a dwarf prince in a dungeon -"
Or interesting/unusual:
"He cracked eggs into a mixing bowl as if they were hateful little skulls."
This novel consists of 23 chapters. In my opinion 2 chapters were badly written. I found plenty good or interesting writing in between the not so well written stuff. It has potential; it just needs editing.
I enjoyed this more than 2 stars. 2.75 stars.
Ebba
February 28, 2023
welcome to 202-Queer 🌈✨
emotionless and boring. the plot of these books is honestly the worst. the writing is also weird, it's kinda choppy, the dialogue ... - people don't talk like that.
but then sometimes there's lines of Dave's internal monologue. him thinking about his lovers past and present and suddenly it's a completely different book. suddenly Dave has emotions, suddenly the writing is touching instead of choppy.
- sadly moments like this don't come often enough.
50 in February: 50/50
and this officially concludes my February reading challenge!! see you again for 100 in March!...- just kidding, i'm never reading again.
emotionless and boring. the plot of these books is honestly the worst. the writing is also weird, it's kinda choppy, the dialogue ... - people don't talk like that.
but then sometimes there's lines of Dave's internal monologue. him thinking about his lovers past and present and suddenly it's a completely different book. suddenly Dave has emotions, suddenly the writing is touching instead of choppy.
- sadly moments like this don't come often enough.
50 in February: 50/50
and this officially concludes my February reading challenge!! see you again for 100 in March!...- just kidding, i'm never reading again.
March 21, 2022
Death Claims the second book of the Dave Brandstetter series by Joseph Hansen was a real battle. I was very close to giving this 1-Star, but I was sufficiently interested to discover who the murderer was, so I finished it, but I almost bailed.
Our homosexual Insurance Investigator, Dave Brandstetter, is sent to check out the death of one of his company’s clients, an old guy called John Oates, who was found dead – presumably drowned – on a beach. Note: I wouldn’t normally, make mention of the sexuality of our chief protagonist, but this author very clearly emphasises this fact, and the sexuality of other characters in the first two books of this series I have read.
Dave is still struggling in his relationship with Doug, a character I found particularly difficult to warm to. Doug was just to bloody needy – I mean poor Dave couldn’t travel away for the night for work without Doug having kittens about being alone. I don’t know how Dave put up with it.
Anyway, Dave needs to sort out what happened to the hapless Mr Oates. The rub is Oates was about to remove his only son Peter from being the sole beneficiary in his will. So, it seems Peter is the chief suspect. Dave’s interest here is, if Oates is murdered his company doesn’t have to cough up the money.
Two things annoyed me about this book:
1. The descriptions were, over-elaborate to the extreme. They went on for two long and seemed to focus on extraneous items that seemed to have no bearing on anything. However, one of my buddy readers (Ebba) did point out they may contain clues. Of course, this is an indicator of my inexperience in the mystery genre – but even so, it was a bit much. Tedious even.
2. The end of each chapter often finished with the introduction of another new character the following chapter then involved this new person. So, the cast grew as the story went on. It seemed to me the culprit would just parachute in out of nowhere and there you go – we’re done. I won’t say if this did in fact happen, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind that it would.
Either way, I didn’t look forward to picking this one up to continue reading it. That’s a sure-fire way to know it just isn’t working. Thanks to my buddy readers Julie and Ebba.
2 Stars
Our homosexual Insurance Investigator, Dave Brandstetter, is sent to check out the death of one of his company’s clients, an old guy called John Oates, who was found dead – presumably drowned – on a beach. Note: I wouldn’t normally, make mention of the sexuality of our chief protagonist, but this author very clearly emphasises this fact, and the sexuality of other characters in the first two books of this series I have read.
Dave is still struggling in his relationship with Doug, a character I found particularly difficult to warm to. Doug was just to bloody needy – I mean poor Dave couldn’t travel away for the night for work without Doug having kittens about being alone. I don’t know how Dave put up with it.
Anyway, Dave needs to sort out what happened to the hapless Mr Oates. The rub is Oates was about to remove his only son Peter from being the sole beneficiary in his will. So, it seems Peter is the chief suspect. Dave’s interest here is, if Oates is murdered his company doesn’t have to cough up the money.
Two things annoyed me about this book:
1. The descriptions were, over-elaborate to the extreme. They went on for two long and seemed to focus on extraneous items that seemed to have no bearing on anything. However, one of my buddy readers (Ebba) did point out they may contain clues. Of course, this is an indicator of my inexperience in the mystery genre – but even so, it was a bit much. Tedious even.
2. The end of each chapter often finished with the introduction of another new character the following chapter then involved this new person. So, the cast grew as the story went on. It seemed to me the culprit would just parachute in out of nowhere and there you go – we’re done. I won’t say if this did in fact happen, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind that it would.
Either way, I didn’t look forward to picking this one up to continue reading it. That’s a sure-fire way to know it just isn’t working. Thanks to my buddy readers Julie and Ebba.
2 Stars
July 23, 2016
4,8 stars!
The mystery in Death Claims was even better than in the first book.
John Oats's body was found washed up on a beach. It was an accident, decided the police. It was murder, believed Dave Brandstetter, a insurance investigator. But who did it?
"A loving son, a not-so-loving wife, a pretty young mistress, a business partner or none of the above."
You'll have also a bit more romance comparing to the first book.
Some thoughts, not exactly about this book, but that were triggered by it:
While reading Joseph Hansen I can feel how my IQ is growing.
A high-class writing. A PLEASURE PURE. A first class fiction.
I never tire of repeating that Joseph Hansen's writing is BRILLIANT.
I consider myself an enthusiastic ebook's reader. I can't imagine my life without my kindle but the ebook age is also responsible for a lot of trash on the book market.
I don't want to offend anybody. But the number of people who believe they have something very interesting to say and who think that to write a book is not much different than to write a shopping list is growing. Unfortunately very rapidly.
These wannabe writers are churning out their novels to the dozen and cause dying of our neurons every time we come in contact with their skills.
Joseph Hansen's writing is the best brain food.
Read his book and you'll know it.
Why not 5 stars.
It's hard. It is actually more than 5 stars, but I have a tiny tiny problem with this case of Dave Brandstetter.
Highly highly highly highly recommended.
March 22, 2013
Rating: 4* of five
The Book Description: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.
"He's not here. I wish he were. Maybe you can help me. The police don't seem to care."
She was April Stannard. Her lover, Peter's father, had died. April believed he'd been murdered.
Dave Brandstetter's investigation takes him through the rare-book world, to backstage at a community theatre, to the home of a world-famous television performer. Along the way, Dave soon comes to agree with April.
My Review: Small-town California has a lot of atmosphere, according to Hansen; I don't remember it that way, but I was young and miserable, so I'll go with the man who found there something that led to this description of an old mill made into a theater:
Beautiful.
It's with this book, second in the series, that Hansen's chops come fully into play. He's here to wow you, and he's got the story to keep you sitting right there flipping pages. April, the bereaved, is Rita Hayworth in my mind; Oates, the dead guy, looks like John Garfield; Peter, the son and heir, is Cabaret-era Michael York; and so on and so on. (Eve, Oates' ex-wife, is Barbara Stanwyck.) I do this a lot, cast the perfect movie cast as I read along. But this time it felt as if it was all done for me. Oates' murderer, when revealed, was a surprise to me even though this was a re-read. And the actor I'd put in the role was perfect...no testament to my skills, just an example of how beautifully Hansen draws his characters.
Dave's got a man, too...how amazing for the 1970s! I so wish this had been a TV series. Magnum PI only gay! *sigh* What might have been....
The Book Description: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.
"He's not here. I wish he were. Maybe you can help me. The police don't seem to care."
She was April Stannard. Her lover, Peter's father, had died. April believed he'd been murdered.
Dave Brandstetter's investigation takes him through the rare-book world, to backstage at a community theatre, to the home of a world-famous television performer. Along the way, Dave soon comes to agree with April.
My Review: Small-town California has a lot of atmosphere, according to Hansen; I don't remember it that way, but I was young and miserable, so I'll go with the man who found there something that led to this description of an old mill made into a theater:
The waterwheel was twice a man’s height, wider than a man’s two stretched arms. The timbers, braced and bolted with rusty iron were heavy, hand-hewn, swollen with a century of wet. Moss bearded the paddles, which dripped as they rose. The sounds were good. Wooden stutter like children running down a hall at the end of school. Grudging axle thud like the heartbeat of a strong old man.
Beautiful.
It's with this book, second in the series, that Hansen's chops come fully into play. He's here to wow you, and he's got the story to keep you sitting right there flipping pages. April, the bereaved, is Rita Hayworth in my mind; Oates, the dead guy, looks like John Garfield; Peter, the son and heir, is Cabaret-era Michael York; and so on and so on. (Eve, Oates' ex-wife, is Barbara Stanwyck.) I do this a lot, cast the perfect movie cast as I read along. But this time it felt as if it was all done for me. Oates' murderer, when revealed, was a surprise to me even though this was a re-read. And the actor I'd put in the role was perfect...no testament to my skills, just an example of how beautifully Hansen draws his characters.
Dave's got a man, too...how amazing for the 1970s! I so wish this had been a TV series. Magnum PI only gay! *sigh* What might have been....
September 15, 2014
Aaaand...yet another Dave Brandstetter book I have no idea how to describe.
I could paraphrase Alexis Hall’s blog post and tell you that this is not the story of a gay man; it is the story of a man who happens to be gay.
I could tell you about the mystery, but I really don't give a shit about it. I love a good mystery and this is a great one, but that part is unimportant, what is important is one man finding his way in the world. Asking questions, hoping to find answers, finding some but creating more.
I could tell you about the romance, but I really don't give a shit about that either. Okay, okay, I do give a little shit. I'm interested in seeing how Dave's relationship develops; is it based on mutual loneliness or love? Why not both? Relationships begin and develop for all sorts of reasons. But yet again, it's not the main focus of the book.
I could talk about Dave Brandstetter.
He's a confusing guy, our Dave. He's able to see other people's emotions and motivations so clearly yet he's clueless when it comes to his own. He can be judgmental, but he treats people with respect. Well, except when he thinks you're a murderer, then he's not too concerned with politeness. He's dogmatic in his search for the truth, but it's to the detriment of him and others. He's stubborn, but willing to compromise. Dave's a mass of contradictions; a complex character. I may not always like him, I frequently disagree with him, but I'm as fond of him as I am of any man in the "real world." He's real to me.
I could tell you that this book is a classic. It clearly defines it's time, yet its subject matter remains true to this day.
I could also mention, though I hesitate to do so, that some of Dave’s observations may seem provocative to our modern eyes. But to lose them would be to lose the part that makes Hansen’s book a product of its time. It wouldn’t be true or honest and it would be considerably less interesting. I would rather read a book that makes me think, that represents reality as the author sees it, than a book that presents an idealized world.
I could also tell you that in Hansen’s books you will not find a large flashing sign that shouts, “Life lessons learned here!” Any lessons you take from this particular book, if you take any at all, will come from you. Hansen respects his audience too much to spell anything out for them.
I could talk about the genre. Usually I try and talk my fellow romance readers into reading books a little outside their scope (I wanna share the joy). But I'm not going to do that with this review; instead I'm going to tell you that if you're looking for major romance this is not your book. It's not even your series. There. It pains me, but I said it.
But please don’t listen to anything I just said. Just hear this:
YOU SHOULD BE READING THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW.
There. I said that too.
Thank you for the BR, Sofia! I love dissecting books with you. :D
August 8, 2021
It's a pleasant read. The characters are well built, the story is solid and it's nice to read about how people lived in the 1970s. The gay-interest bit is a nice change from the womanisers and misanthropes that populate most detective novels too.
June 17, 2014
Hansen’s word painting, put me into the setting with visuals and atmosphere complementing the feelings invoked by the characters. Sadness, loss, loneliness, tragedy and strength permeate the whole story. With simple words Hansen is able to create a whole cache of full blooded characters.
The plotting of the story reminded me of one of Christie’s Poirot cases when he goes through all the characters, one by one and posits that they are the murderer and we visit a while with that character and work out that he is innocent and go on to the next one This works with Hansen too. He is able to build up characters, real characters and you come to see how they are what they are and how they think. Memorable for me in this story are John ‘the charming dependent user’, a user till the very end; the sad Whittington, I felt sad for him, like Madge he falls for the young beautiful ones who use him as stepping stones on to ‘better’ things; the strong Eve, who is seemingly bitchy and cold but in whom I saw strength and dependability, anchor material. Dave goes through all these characters, stubbornly, like a mastiff with a bone, until he finds the real murderer.
Through the story we continue to catch glimpses of Dave, a cynical, reserved but caring Dave. To be able to have a relationship we carve out a space in our lives for that person to fit in. So when we lose that person, apart from the missing we also have the empty hole to deal with. Double wham. Dave has lost his other half and is now a bit in the dark, trying to find his way again. Only to do so he has to stop clinging to the lost one. I find this sad and tragic but true. We cannot walk forward whilst looking back.
This is the kind of book which gives you people, who you can talk about for ages , which I end up doing with my buddy reader Rosa. We can talk a hell out a character and Hansen gives us the material to do this with. Because his people are us, their motives are our motives, their lives are our lives and what is more interesting than us at the end of the day!
BR with Rosa (thanks for the company :D)
January 22, 2014
That great man of "gay" crime fiction, Joseph Hansen, returns with the second instalment of his twelve book Dave Brandstetter, Insurance Investigator series, Death Claims sees Dave in the aftermath of his previous case, dealing with the relationship he fell in to with the spitting image of his dead lover whilst at the same time investigating a new suspicious death of a well insured client.
Objectively Death Claims is the perfectly written crime novel; Hansen weaves a magical web of clues and suspicion through several suspects, constantly revealing new information just when you think you've got a handle on who did what to whom along with your judgemental homosexual hero he pulls the rug from under you with a delicate flick of the wrist, sending you off on another tangent as Brandstetter castigates himself once more for being such an idiot who can't see the wood for the trees.
Subjectively however it feels like a step backwards in terms of enjoyment from the first in the series, there's less heartfelt observations, less poetic human insight and the investigation itself is just that bit less intriguing. Certain aspects seem perfunctory, red herrings placed for the sake of red herrings, the characters are book dealers and actors so they're all wonderful to hang out with even if they're all potential murderers but there's just nothing truly interesting about any of them outside of being suspects either.
All this subjectivity aside means little in the grand scheme of things, Hansen is still a truly fine writer in this genre and worthy of further exploration, there's ten more of these things out there afterall.
Objectively Death Claims is the perfectly written crime novel; Hansen weaves a magical web of clues and suspicion through several suspects, constantly revealing new information just when you think you've got a handle on who did what to whom along with your judgemental homosexual hero he pulls the rug from under you with a delicate flick of the wrist, sending you off on another tangent as Brandstetter castigates himself once more for being such an idiot who can't see the wood for the trees.
Subjectively however it feels like a step backwards in terms of enjoyment from the first in the series, there's less heartfelt observations, less poetic human insight and the investigation itself is just that bit less intriguing. Certain aspects seem perfunctory, red herrings placed for the sake of red herrings, the characters are book dealers and actors so they're all wonderful to hang out with even if they're all potential murderers but there's just nothing truly interesting about any of them outside of being suspects either.
All this subjectivity aside means little in the grand scheme of things, Hansen is still a truly fine writer in this genre and worthy of further exploration, there's ten more of these things out there afterall.
January 30, 2008
Reading Hansen is like a lesson in superb writing.
August 3, 2012
This is the second of Joseph Hansen's novels featuring insurance investigator David Brandstetter. A policy holder named John Oats has drowned in the Pacific and the body has washed up on shore. The police and the coroner are happy to accept a verdict of suicide, but Dave is not.
Neither is Oat's lover, April Stannard. In interviewing Stannard, Dave discovers that Oat's young son Peter has gone missing. Peter was the beneficiary of his father's life insurance policy, but when he drowned, John Oats was in the process of changing the beneficiary to April. For obvious reasons, Dave is very anxious to track down young Mr. Oats and ask him a few pointed questions.
Inevitably, the case turns out to be much more complicated than it initially appeared, and as Dave tries to get to the truth of the matter, he must also resolve a crisis in his personal life. He's taken a new lover named Doug. He and Doug found each other while they were both on the rebound, adjusting to the deaths of their former partners. Doug appears to be having second thoughts about the relationship and Dave is afraid that his heart may be broken for the second time in the space of a few months.
This is an intriguing book with a well-crafted plot. Hansen was the first crime novelist to write an extended series featuring an openly gay detective and to make his love life a prominent part of the books. Sadly, many of the books in the series are no longer readily available. This one is, and fans of detective fiction who haven't yet made Dave Brandstetter's acquaintance might well want to look for it.
Neither is Oat's lover, April Stannard. In interviewing Stannard, Dave discovers that Oat's young son Peter has gone missing. Peter was the beneficiary of his father's life insurance policy, but when he drowned, John Oats was in the process of changing the beneficiary to April. For obvious reasons, Dave is very anxious to track down young Mr. Oats and ask him a few pointed questions.
Inevitably, the case turns out to be much more complicated than it initially appeared, and as Dave tries to get to the truth of the matter, he must also resolve a crisis in his personal life. He's taken a new lover named Doug. He and Doug found each other while they were both on the rebound, adjusting to the deaths of their former partners. Doug appears to be having second thoughts about the relationship and Dave is afraid that his heart may be broken for the second time in the space of a few months.
This is an intriguing book with a well-crafted plot. Hansen was the first crime novelist to write an extended series featuring an openly gay detective and to make his love life a prominent part of the books. Sadly, many of the books in the series are no longer readily available. This one is, and fans of detective fiction who haven't yet made Dave Brandstetter's acquaintance might well want to look for it.
January 16, 2022
Death claims insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter is suspicious of the apparent drowning of John Oats. The superb swimmer was found washed up on a beach along the Californian coastline. Does his death have anything to do with John’s recent desire to change his beneficiary on his life insurance policy? Dave Brandstetter digs deep. He takes nothing at face value, fully intent on discovering the truth no matter where it leads.
Hansen has a staccato style of writing as he describes his characters. With just a few adjectives, he creates an identifiable person. The pleasant surprise is that Hansen’s novels written in the 1970s translate reasonably well to a contemporary audience. Brandstetter is openly homosexual and it is his sensitivity to the stigma/shame that gays faced during that period that cause him to discern clues often missed by police detectives.
Hansen has a staccato style of writing as he describes his characters. With just a few adjectives, he creates an identifiable person. The pleasant surprise is that Hansen’s novels written in the 1970s translate reasonably well to a contemporary audience. Brandstetter is openly homosexual and it is his sensitivity to the stigma/shame that gays faced during that period that cause him to discern clues often missed by police detectives.
November 8, 2016
The first time I read this, I commented on the descriptions — saying that at times they were laid on too thick — and style, and also that Hansen somehow manages to make you care about the characters, even minor ones. I disagree with the first one now, perhaps because I knew going in what Hansen’s style was like: it still reminds me very much of Chandler, even if he doesn’t have quite the same knack for the well-placed word or reference (no “shop-worn Galahad” here). And I still agree with the second one: a particular character doesn’t show up for most of the story, and yet I very much cared about how things worked out for him, and about what he tried to do.
I also commented on the subplot between Doug and Dave, which I loved: I loved the fact that they’re both damaged and imperfect, that their past lovers (both dead, and therefore idealised) get in the way, and their responses to that. I love that Dave decides it’s time he did some work to keep the relationship going, and then he does — but also that he’s a self-righteous ass about some things, not some paragon of virtue. Their relationship feels real, both in the way they disappoint each other and in how they match.
I can’t remember the individual books well enough to decide where it sits on my mental ranking of the series; I look forward to discovering that in the rereads to come, I think. But it’s solid and I enjoy it, and especially for Dave’s life outside the cases, even where it’s relatively background. He has a life outside the cases — much more so even than another favourite detective of mine, Peter Wimsey, whose life outside cases is mostly spent discussing the case anyway, or touches on it. Perhaps that’s part of why I love Dave Brandstetter so much.
Originally posted here.
I also commented on the subplot between Doug and Dave, which I loved: I loved the fact that they’re both damaged and imperfect, that their past lovers (both dead, and therefore idealised) get in the way, and their responses to that. I love that Dave decides it’s time he did some work to keep the relationship going, and then he does — but also that he’s a self-righteous ass about some things, not some paragon of virtue. Their relationship feels real, both in the way they disappoint each other and in how they match.
I can’t remember the individual books well enough to decide where it sits on my mental ranking of the series; I look forward to discovering that in the rereads to come, I think. But it’s solid and I enjoy it, and especially for Dave’s life outside the cases, even where it’s relatively background. He has a life outside the cases — much more so even than another favourite detective of mine, Peter Wimsey, whose life outside cases is mostly spent discussing the case anyway, or touches on it. Perhaps that’s part of why I love Dave Brandstetter so much.
Originally posted here.
July 28, 2021
Another incredible Brandstetter mystery.
Family ties, feuds and missing heirs plus the struggling relationship of Brandstetter make for a brilliant page turner.
I've already ordered book 3.
Family ties, feuds and missing heirs plus the struggling relationship of Brandstetter make for a brilliant page turner.
I've already ordered book 3.
October 23, 2016
While it took me some time to get into the story due to its old fashioned kind of detached writing style, plus English is not my native language, in the end I enjoyed the book. The mystery sincerely took me by surprise, what a fantastic plot. In the beginning you think it's quite clear where is it going but then there's a plot twist that makes you realize who might actually be the murderer but then right in the 95% you get another plot twist that makes you rethink everything that happened. And it felt so right...it wasn't just an out of the sleeve twist, it was just there the whole the time but both the reader and the MC didn't notice until we got info from all the characters.
The book ended in a cliffhanger of sorts, the mystery got solved but Dave's personal problems were left in the air and I felt we needed some last scene of him with his guy. I peeked a bit into the next book and it starts off with the next mystery so I'm not sure why it ended so abruptly.
The book ended in a cliffhanger of sorts, the mystery got solved but Dave's personal problems were left in the air and I felt we needed some last scene of him with his guy. I peeked a bit into the next book and it starts off with the next mystery so I'm not sure why it ended so abruptly.
August 13, 2018
John Oats did not die from the third degree burns he suffered when his garage caught fire. He did not die from the stress of the skin graft operations or the physical therapy afterward. He did not die from humiliation when his medical bills cost him his business, his home and every cent of his savings. He did not even die from grief when his wife left him, claiming that since he wasn’t handsome anymore and couldn’t work anymore that he was useless to her.
But John Oats did die from salt water in his lungs and blunt force trauma to his head, facts uncovered when his body was found amidst the rocks on a local beach. The coroner’s inquest has ruled John’s death an accident, calling it “death by misadventure.”
However, Dave Brandstetter, the lead “Death Claims” investigator for Medallion Life Insurance Company knows one thing the coroner does not. Two days before his death, John Oats called Medallion and requested Change Of Beneficiary papers from the company. So now, Dave is faced with the proverbial chicken and egg conundrum — which came first, the salt water or the blow to the head.
Within one day, Brandstetter learns three more facts that neither the coroner nor the police knew. First, the legal beneficiary has disappeared. Second, John Oats always swam at night to minimize the effect his many scars might have on other beachgoers, but he never swam during a storm, one of which had occurred on the night he died. And third, he was addicted to morphine, buying, begging and stealing it anywhere he could. Even his burn doctor didn’t know this.
Now, we the readers, along with Dave Brandstetter, are reasonably convinced that someone wanted that $20,000 life insurance payout more than they wanted John Oats to re-master his scarred life. There are former customers of his in the antiquarian book trade who are financially destitute also. The ex-business partner is practically bankrupt; the nearly, but not yet, ex-wife is not in much better financial shape. And the son is just starting his career and has gone off the grid.
And speaking of the “grid,” $20K does not seem like much money to stage a death over, but this book was published in 1973. At that time, that amount of money was easily one-third again the cost of a house. So motives laced with greed and need are in great abundance here.
Joseph Hansen has contructed an evenly paced mystery, with clues — factual and red-herring — coming to light in a realistic manner. But Hansen is not only an excellent craftsman in building a plot, he is a master of the descriptive adjective and adverb. He describes landscape, clothing, furniture, people’s appearances in such a manner that you can practically believe you are right there seeing and feeling what the words say. He doesn’t use gross profanity or gratuitous sexual description to enhance any part of the storyline. He doesn’t use shock and awe to depict violence. He simply uses descriptive verbiage and psychology to suck you right in and keep you there.
And Hansen doesn’t use Brandstetter’s homosexuality as a focal point in this story. The timeframe of this story may be the 1970s and having a gay main character may not have been any where near the norm of that time, but Brandstetter’s homosexuality is of really no more importance to the overall plot than Harry Bosch’s heterosexuality is to a Michael Connelly novel. The important thing is the intellectual and psychological state of the main protagonist. That’s what drives the story.
But John Oats did die from salt water in his lungs and blunt force trauma to his head, facts uncovered when his body was found amidst the rocks on a local beach. The coroner’s inquest has ruled John’s death an accident, calling it “death by misadventure.”
However, Dave Brandstetter, the lead “Death Claims” investigator for Medallion Life Insurance Company knows one thing the coroner does not. Two days before his death, John Oats called Medallion and requested Change Of Beneficiary papers from the company. So now, Dave is faced with the proverbial chicken and egg conundrum — which came first, the salt water or the blow to the head.
Within one day, Brandstetter learns three more facts that neither the coroner nor the police knew. First, the legal beneficiary has disappeared. Second, John Oats always swam at night to minimize the effect his many scars might have on other beachgoers, but he never swam during a storm, one of which had occurred on the night he died. And third, he was addicted to morphine, buying, begging and stealing it anywhere he could. Even his burn doctor didn’t know this.
Now, we the readers, along with Dave Brandstetter, are reasonably convinced that someone wanted that $20,000 life insurance payout more than they wanted John Oats to re-master his scarred life. There are former customers of his in the antiquarian book trade who are financially destitute also. The ex-business partner is practically bankrupt; the nearly, but not yet, ex-wife is not in much better financial shape. And the son is just starting his career and has gone off the grid.
And speaking of the “grid,” $20K does not seem like much money to stage a death over, but this book was published in 1973. At that time, that amount of money was easily one-third again the cost of a house. So motives laced with greed and need are in great abundance here.
Joseph Hansen has contructed an evenly paced mystery, with clues — factual and red-herring — coming to light in a realistic manner. But Hansen is not only an excellent craftsman in building a plot, he is a master of the descriptive adjective and adverb. He describes landscape, clothing, furniture, people’s appearances in such a manner that you can practically believe you are right there seeing and feeling what the words say. He doesn’t use gross profanity or gratuitous sexual description to enhance any part of the storyline. He doesn’t use shock and awe to depict violence. He simply uses descriptive verbiage and psychology to suck you right in and keep you there.
And Hansen doesn’t use Brandstetter’s homosexuality as a focal point in this story. The timeframe of this story may be the 1970s and having a gay main character may not have been any where near the norm of that time, but Brandstetter’s homosexuality is of really no more importance to the overall plot than Harry Bosch’s heterosexuality is to a Michael Connelly novel. The important thing is the intellectual and psychological state of the main protagonist. That’s what drives the story.
January 9, 2026
The second in the Dave Brandstetter “detective” series. Ok so the writing can be uneven and would benefit from harder editing. But, taken on its own terms, this is solid, enjoyable noir, and the elements it brings together make it especially appealing to me: I love the hard-boiled detective framework, the setting in the world of book selling and first-edition books, and above all the fact that it features an openly gay male detective (technically he is a claims investigator for an insurance company) and other gay characters, written in 1973, when that was pretty groundbreaking. Dave Brandstetter isn’t stereotyped or camp; he’s simply a competent, masculine professional who happens to be gay. Nowadays maybe a redundant concept, but arguably a really useful message for a book written in 1973.
I also enjoyed spotting the anachronisms of the early 1970s — the smoking, pay phones, manual credit-card transactions, period decor etc. I always enjoy reading books from other eras partly for this reason: noticing how everyday life, language, and assumptions have changed.
I fully intend to read more of the series. Probably a 3/5 or less on literary merit, but 4/5 for the concept.
I also enjoyed spotting the anachronisms of the early 1970s — the smoking, pay phones, manual credit-card transactions, period decor etc. I always enjoy reading books from other eras partly for this reason: noticing how everyday life, language, and assumptions have changed.
I fully intend to read more of the series. Probably a 3/5 or less on literary merit, but 4/5 for the concept.
April 18, 2015
The Dave Brandstetter mysteries read like super authentic period pieces. That's of course because they are in fact aged-contemporary stories, giving a beautifully preserved rendition of the era, the setting and the social attitudes towards homosexuals. It's like a literary museum.
I love Hansen's portrayal of Southern California in the early seventies. Not just Los Angeles, but all the remote surrounding areas, many of which were undeveloped. I'm not sure if Arena Blanca is a real place, I've never heard of it, but I sure can imagine it.
I found this to be just the right mix of personal development and crime procedural. The author flits between these two story lines. The personal story is a continuation from the first book where we find Dave and his new lover are at a crossroads. Both bring baggage and they must confront what to do about it. A romance this is not, but still you see a side of Dave that has hope for the future. The story does give a firsthand account of what it to be gay a few years after the enlightening 'summer of love'. Attitudes towards sex were relaxing, but still being gay was still quite stigmatized. Actually the term homosexual is used quite a bit, and it has such a clinical sound to it today.
I love the character Madge.
A surprising number of typos, especially for an older book.
I love Hansen's portrayal of Southern California in the early seventies. Not just Los Angeles, but all the remote surrounding areas, many of which were undeveloped. I'm not sure if Arena Blanca is a real place, I've never heard of it, but I sure can imagine it.
I found this to be just the right mix of personal development and crime procedural. The author flits between these two story lines. The personal story is a continuation from the first book where we find Dave and his new lover are at a crossroads. Both bring baggage and they must confront what to do about it. A romance this is not, but still you see a side of Dave that has hope for the future. The story does give a firsthand account of what it to be gay a few years after the enlightening 'summer of love'. Attitudes towards sex were relaxing, but still being gay was still quite stigmatized. Actually the term homosexual is used quite a bit, and it has such a clinical sound to it today.
I love the character Madge.
A surprising number of typos, especially for an older book.
December 22, 2021
I'm on a bit of a Joseph Hansen/Dave Brandstetter binge right now. Hanson's a wonderful writer with a good ear for dialogue and a sense of which details will set a scene appropriately. Brandstetter, Hansen's central character and a death claims investigator for an insurance company, is equally wonderful. He's a gay man living in the 60s/70s, surprisingly honest about who he is, cultured, articulate, brusque, and far too sharp for anyone around him engaged in nefarious activities to have any chance of getting away with something.
These mystery novels are great reads in their own right. They're also stand-outs because of their central character. Getting the reading public to embrace a character like Brandstetter may not seem like a major accomplishment these days, but this series was first published beginning 50 years ago. A great mystery and a lesson in a crucial moment in the development of the genre—what more can a reader ask for?
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own.
These mystery novels are great reads in their own right. They're also stand-outs because of their central character. Getting the reading public to embrace a character like Brandstetter may not seem like a major accomplishment these days, but this series was first published beginning 50 years ago. A great mystery and a lesson in a crucial moment in the development of the genre—what more can a reader ask for?
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own.
April 30, 2018
that was good. and there's 10 more of these :)
no review for now, way past bedtime.
no review for now, way past bedtime.
March 21, 2013
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.
"He's not here. I wish he were. Maybe you can help me. The police don't seem to care."
She was April Stannard. Her lover, Peter's father, had died. April believed he'd been murdered.
Dave Brandstetter's investigation takes him through the rare-book world, to backstage at a community theatre, to the home of a world-famous television performer. Along the way, Dave soon comes to agree with April.
My Review: Small-town California has a lot of atmosphere, according to Hansen; I don't remember it that way, but I was young and miserable, so I'll go with the man who found there something that led to this description of an old mill made into a theater:
Beautiful.
It's with this book, second in the series, that Hansen's chops come fully into play. He's here to wow you, and he's got the story to keep you sitting right there flipping pages. April, the bereaved, is Rita Hayworth in my mind; Oates, the dead guy, looks like John Garfield; Peter, the son and heir, is Cabaret-era Michael York; and so on and so on. (Eve, Oates' ex-wife, is Barbara Stanwyck.) I do this a lot, cast the perfect movie cast as I read along. But this time it felt as if it was all done for me. Oates' murderer, when revealed, was a surprise to me even though this was a re-read. And the actor I'd put in the role was perfect...no testament to my skills, just an example of how beautifully Hansen draws his characters.
Dave's got a man, too...how amazing for the 1970s! I so wish this had been a TV series. Magnum PI only gay! *sigh* What might have been....
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.
"He's not here. I wish he were. Maybe you can help me. The police don't seem to care."
She was April Stannard. Her lover, Peter's father, had died. April believed he'd been murdered.
Dave Brandstetter's investigation takes him through the rare-book world, to backstage at a community theatre, to the home of a world-famous television performer. Along the way, Dave soon comes to agree with April.
My Review: Small-town California has a lot of atmosphere, according to Hansen; I don't remember it that way, but I was young and miserable, so I'll go with the man who found there something that led to this description of an old mill made into a theater:
The waterwheel was twice a man’s height, wider than a man’s two stretched arms. The timbers, braced and bolted with rusty iron were heavy, hand-hewn, swollen with a century of wet. Moss bearded the paddles, which dripped as they rose. The sounds were good. Wooden stutter like children running down a hall at the end of school. Grudging axle thud like the heartbeat of a strong old man.
Beautiful.
It's with this book, second in the series, that Hansen's chops come fully into play. He's here to wow you, and he's got the story to keep you sitting right there flipping pages. April, the bereaved, is Rita Hayworth in my mind; Oates, the dead guy, looks like John Garfield; Peter, the son and heir, is Cabaret-era Michael York; and so on and so on. (Eve, Oates' ex-wife, is Barbara Stanwyck.) I do this a lot, cast the perfect movie cast as I read along. But this time it felt as if it was all done for me. Oates' murderer, when revealed, was a surprise to me even though this was a re-read. And the actor I'd put in the role was perfect...no testament to my skills, just an example of how beautifully Hansen draws his characters.
Dave's got a man, too...how amazing for the 1970s! I so wish this had been a TV series. Magnum PI only gay! *sigh* What might have been....
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
October 27, 2013
3.5 stars
The second book of Joseph Hansen's "Dave Brandstetter" series brings Dave, claims investigator for Medallion Life Insurance Company, looking for a missing beneficiary. While I did enjoy it, but I didn't love it as much as I did book 1. There was a couple of things that made me feel that way ...
Peter Oats, the missing boy, was 'missing' for almost 2/3 of the book. When he did appear, it wasn't because Dave found him, but because he was coming to the police station himself. In that sense, I felt 'cheated' of the mystery as I wanted Dave to be the one discovering him (even if Dave found out where the young man were when he was 'missing').
The ending was VERY abrupt, I got whiplash thinking about it. If it was meant to be a memorable effect, well it worked but not in a good way. I could go with open ending but this one was like hitting a break when you're driving 80 miles/hour, END SCENE.
The book also robbed us from the chance of reading about Dave and Doug (the man he met on a case in the first book) when they were together, since in this book, suddenly we found out they had problems. I think they both had too much baggage and I wasn't sure about them being together in the first place. The discussion-fight was deliciously civil, though, even if the resolution was too quick (and too easy).
Having said all that, I found the mystery quite intriguing. People lying to Dave's face, people keeping secrets, even the dead man wasn't like he was seemed in the beginning. So many possibilities -- and I got my first clue, only after half-book.
Oh, and even if it took time for me to get used to Joseph Hansen's short clipped descriptions, I found his sentences could be very lyrical ...
The second book of Joseph Hansen's "Dave Brandstetter" series brings Dave, claims investigator for Medallion Life Insurance Company, looking for a missing beneficiary. While I did enjoy it, but I didn't love it as much as I did book 1. There was a couple of things that made me feel that way ...
Peter Oats, the missing boy, was 'missing' for almost 2/3 of the book. When he did appear, it wasn't because Dave found him, but because he was coming to the police station himself. In that sense, I felt 'cheated' of the mystery as I wanted Dave to be the one discovering him (even if Dave found out where the young man were when he was 'missing').
The ending was VERY abrupt, I got whiplash thinking about it. If it was meant to be a memorable effect, well it worked but not in a good way. I could go with open ending but this one was like hitting a break when you're driving 80 miles/hour, END SCENE.
The book also robbed us from the chance of reading about Dave and Doug (the man he met on a case in the first book) when they were together, since in this book, suddenly we found out they had problems. I think they both had too much baggage and I wasn't sure about them being together in the first place. The discussion-fight was deliciously civil, though, even if the resolution was too quick (and too easy).
Having said all that, I found the mystery quite intriguing. People lying to Dave's face, people keeping secrets, even the dead man wasn't like he was seemed in the beginning. So many possibilities -- and I got my first clue, only after half-book.
Oh, and even if it took time for me to get used to Joseph Hansen's short clipped descriptions, I found his sentences could be very lyrical ...
As he climbed the steep stairs to the street, a mockingbird in one of the shaggy pepper trees spilled song, spilled joy. His hand on the gate at the top, Dave glanced back down. Ingalls stood on the porch edge, peering up, but not at him. He was trying to locate the bird. He looked as if the sound gave him pain... (Chapter 12)
January 13, 2015
“I told myself all that's wrong with us is misunderstanding. That's not good, but it's not the worst. The worst is not having anyone to have a misunderstanding with. It's not ecstasy. But it beats nothing. So —I came home.”
I marvel at Hansen's writing. But in this instalment I felt more connected to Dave Brandstetter's personal life rather than the mystery itself. And craved much more of it. In those rare moments when we get to see a glimpse into the heart of our PI, I empathised with his every emotion.
“Something wrong there?"
"Some confusion about who's dead and who's alive. But if it can be straightened out, I'll straighten it."
"You could let it go," his father said.
"That's your style"—Dave peered into the martini pitcher— "not mine.”
What a man. What an attitude. I hope against hope he gets his share of happiness yet.
***4.5 stars***
I marvel at Hansen's writing. But in this instalment I felt more connected to Dave Brandstetter's personal life rather than the mystery itself. And craved much more of it. In those rare moments when we get to see a glimpse into the heart of our PI, I empathised with his every emotion.
“Something wrong there?"
"Some confusion about who's dead and who's alive. But if it can be straightened out, I'll straighten it."
"You could let it go," his father said.
"That's your style"—Dave peered into the martini pitcher— "not mine.”
What a man. What an attitude. I hope against hope he gets his share of happiness yet.
***4.5 stars***
May 19, 2022
John Oats’s life was one spent in pain. After burning his body in an accidental gasoline fire, Oats lives a meager existence impoverished further by his addiction to morphine. So when he is found drowned in the ocean near his home David Brandsetter, a claims investigator for the company holding Oats’s life insurance policy, scrutinizes Oats’s case to verify that it was indeed the accidental death ruled by the coroner and not an understandable suicide. What he uncovers, however, raises far more disturbing questions, ones that suggest that Oats’s death may not have been accidental or a suicide but something else – murder by someone close to him.
I first learned about Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandsetter series when I read an article about their recent republication. Intrigued by the description of a well-written murder series with a gay character as the protagonist, I searched for a secondhand copy to read. Death Claims was the first novel that I have read in the series, and while several reviewers on this site have compared it unfavorably to its predecessor, Fadeout, I found it to be a crisp read with a well-crafted mystery that kept me guessing until the final chapter. If this is regarded as one of the worst books in the series, then Hansen’s reputation is well deserved, as many a mystery writer would aspire to write a novel as enjoyable as this one.
I first learned about Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandsetter series when I read an article about their recent republication. Intrigued by the description of a well-written murder series with a gay character as the protagonist, I searched for a secondhand copy to read. Death Claims was the first novel that I have read in the series, and while several reviewers on this site have compared it unfavorably to its predecessor, Fadeout, I found it to be a crisp read with a well-crafted mystery that kept me guessing until the final chapter. If this is regarded as one of the worst books in the series, then Hansen’s reputation is well deserved, as many a mystery writer would aspire to write a novel as enjoyable as this one.
July 4, 2022
I enjoyed this more than the first book in the series, but it's still nonstop queer misery. I know the series was groundbreaking in being one of the first mainstream series with a gay detective, but it seems to be at the price of him and every other queer character having a terrible time.
September 6, 2011
4.5 stars
I got accustomed to Hansen's style so the second book was easier for me to read. His characterization is precise as a scalpel - you can at times hear Dave's sarcasm dripping from the pages. I also like Dave's two sides - one, relentless investigator and two, man willing to compromise in order to make his relationship work. Great stuff.
I got accustomed to Hansen's style so the second book was easier for me to read. His characterization is precise as a scalpel - you can at times hear Dave's sarcasm dripping from the pages. I also like Dave's two sides - one, relentless investigator and two, man willing to compromise in order to make his relationship work. Great stuff.
January 10, 2017
I liked it enough, it was quick, a little more engaging than the first book in the series. The characters could have been a little more fleshed out, it would be nice when the murderer is revealed to remember who the hell he is.
August 20, 2013
I can't understand why Hansen wasn't more known during his lifetime, or now. He is a real master.
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