Early Graves

Dave Brandstetter #9

by Joseph Hansen

The 9th novel in the Dave Brandstetter PI series, Dave Brandstetter, is called upon to track down a serial killer operating in and around Los Angeles who has been killing gay men who have AIDS. 'The most exciting and effective writer of the classic private-eye novel working today' -LA Times 'After 40 years, Hammet has a worthy successor' - The Times '...a strong unflinching writer and everything in his taut prose is real' - Boston Globe

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, M M Romance, LGBT, Historical, Gay, Mystery Thriller

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Joseph 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.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1987, this mystery features a serial killer who murders gay men with AIDS.

Hansen's LA atmosphere, his insights into the gay community, and his admirable hero, insurance investigator David Brandstetter, make this a worthwhile entry in the series.

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another very good book in Joseph Hansen's Dave Brandstetter series. The series has now moved into the mid-1980s, and the AIDS epidemic is gathering momentum, a matter of obvious concern to Dave who is gay.

Dave returns home from a business trip to find a man who has been knifed to death in his courtyard. Dave's business card is lying at the man's feet, but Dave does not recognize him. The man appears to be the latest victim of a killer who has been targeting young gay men who are dying of AIDS.

This particular victim turns out to be a developer named Drew Dodge. Since Dodge died at his doorstep, Dave feels a responsibility to investigate the crime. Dave's personal life is also in turmoil, given that his lover, Cecil, is now involved with someone else. Dave is feeling adrift and tired and is thinking it's about time to hang up his license.

The investigation takes Dave across the larger Los Angeles metropolitan area, into neighborhoods good and bad. It quickly becomes apparent that someone, most likely the killer, does not want Dave pursuing the investigation, and Dave soon finds himself at risk. That will not deter him, of course, and he will doggedly pursue the case, no matter the personal cost.

Hansen never disappoints and certainly does not do so here. He's excellent at plotting a story, setting a scene and developing in the reader a real sense of the humanity of all the characters. This is a particularly gripping book because of the fact that the scourge of AIDS has now been introduced into American life and into the lives of Dave and his friends. As if life wasn't hard enough for gay people like Dave, it's about to get even more difficult and emotionally devastating. In a book that's allegedly about a series of horrific crimes, Hansen captures this situation expertly and with deep feeling.

[Rosa, really · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one's a little different. Up until this one, every book has started with Dave knocking on the door of some dead person's next of kin, who invariably lies to him (everyone does), as the California sun beats down mercilessly.

This one started with Dave at the end of a case, where I'm sure everyone lied to him, in the California rain. Also, Dave is going through some shit and as a result it's like he has no patience for other people's bullshit. I LOVE THAT.

What's not different in this book? Dave still thinks he's fuckin' Superman. You are at least 65 years old, dude! Ease up a little.


Of course, Dave has survived 9 killers at this point, so really, why shouldn't he think he's Geezer Superman?

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Brandstetter series Hansen had barely touched AIDS before this book. In this one he gives us a big dose of whole unvarnished truths about it. Squalid, sad, honest and yes loving. You have to see the monster (AIDS) as it is to be able to fight. Unfortunately AIDS also brought out the bigger monsters in us, most of them fuelled by fear but still monstrous.

The parallel between the crime story and Dave’s personal life which makes the risk, the danger closer.

One of my favorites in the series - gulped down in a couple of days.


Sleuthing with Rosa

[Antonella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt completely immersed in the first years of the AIDS epidemic: the irrational fears, the hate, the tragic of those young lives wasted. It was so sad! I suppose that the happy ending of Dave's personal story gives a kind of balance to all that sadness.

All along we get glimpses of what a decent human being is Dave, one can't help to love him.

The mystery was also more mysterious than usual IMO.

[Kaje Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Released in 1987, this book marks the point where AIDS enters Dave Brandstetter's world and his cases. The mystery here is more small-scale and personal in scope, and Dave's own personal life is also hitting snags. Although he is still the laconic figure he has always been, this book felt like it went a bit deeper into the man, and is probably my favorite to date.

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's about a serial killer murdering men with AIDS, so you know right away it's going to be a laugh riot.

Genuinely though: starts out extremely strong; Dave Brandstetter's need to uncover what's going on clearly goes far beyond his usual work as an insurance investigator. His meeting with friends and loved ones of AIDS victims is wrenching and plainly and powerfully depicted by Hansen.

Then there's a twist about 3/4ths of the way through and the rest is fairly silly. But overall, I remain impressed and fascinated by this series, even though no single book has blown me away.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Graves is one of the better volumes in Hansen's Dave Brandstetter series. The twists and turns in Brandstetter's investigation into a series of murders of AIDS victims kept me guessing till the end. As usual, Hansen introduces a number of memorable characters and revisits characters from previous volumes in this book. And his evocation of southern California is spot on, as usual. Brandstetter's relationship with his boyfriend, Cecil, has hit a hard patch because Cecil went more than a little overboard by marrying a girl he thought he could help no other way. This problem was apparently resolved in a deus ex machina authorial move at the end of the book (the primary reason why I could not give this book 5 stars). For me, however, what sets this volume apart from the other Brandstetter mysteries is Hansen's laconic and directly to the point evocation of the panic, dread and resultant compounding of the human tragedy of the AIDS epidemic in the mid eighties, which Hansen wrote in 1987 - not with the advantage of hindsight. Joseph, if you can read this, kudos !!!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Early Graves, Hansen’s ninth mystery featuring insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter, HIV / AIDS first enters the long story arc that began with Fadeout in 1970.

In May 1986, around the time Hansen began writing his ninth Brandstetter mystery, eighty-five countries had reported 38,401 cases of AIDS to the World Health Organization.

In March of 1987, the FDA approved AZT, the first antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. A year’s supply cost $10,000. It was the world’s most expensive medication. Even so, many who took the drug could not tolerate its side effects when taken at the needed high dosage. Furthermore, that dosage could only slow replication of the virus and the progression of AIDS.

Finally, in May of 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivered his first public speech on the disease that had already killed thousands of Americans and many more people around the world. Reagan had been inaugurated in 1981 just a few months before the first known cases of AIDS.

By the end of the year when Hansen’s book appeared in bookstores, 71,751 total cases of AIDS had been reported to the WHO with 50,378 of those cases from the United States. By the end of 1987, 40,849 Americans had died. A disproportionate number of those deaths were gay men.

Early Graves which is set during the early years of the AIDS crisis, opens on a melancholy note as Dave Brandstetter “crossed the airport tarmac in the rain, and climbed a cold, wet steel staircase to a DC-8.” He was coming home to Los Angeles following an investigative job in Fresno. But home was not the same, so the car trip home in bumper-to-bumper LA traffic included a non-stop argument with Cecil.

Dave’s four-year long relationship had come to an end after Cecil surprisingly married Adam Streeter’s blind seventeen-year-old daughter, Chrissie (See Brandstetter #8). As Cecil reminded Dave when he picked him up at the airport in LA, “Her father was dead, murdered, the only one who loved and cared for her. Her grandmother…was dead, too. Her damned mother wanted to control her so she could control all that money Chrissie had coming…Her mother’s boyfriend tried to rape Chrissie. The County wanted to put her in a foster home. Somebody had to do something.”

Then, to make Dave’s homecoming even worse, a dead man was seated on a bench outside the front door. Though neither Dave nor Cecil recognized the man, in his pocket was Dave’s business card.

When Jefferson Leppard of the LA homicide division arrives at Dave’s house, he tells him that the dead man appears to be the sixth victim of a killer going after men with AIDS. But who had left the body of 34-year-old Harold Andrew Dodge outside Dave’s door and why? It might not have been the killer since, as Dave tells Leppard, “It wasn’t to threaten me. I don’t know the man. I don’t have AIDS.”

Dave intends to find answers.

As he begins to investigate, no one seems willing to believe the medical examiner’s report that Dodge, who was married and had children, had AIDS. Dodge’s wife says he was happily married as does his mother-in-law. They both say he could not have had AIDS.

Even Dodge’s doctor says the examiner must have gotten the test results wrong and tells Dave that his patient was “a family man” and was not a drug user thereby causing Dave to remind him that “only seventeen percent of AIDS victims are intravenous drug users. Seventy-three percent are homosexuals.”

When the doctor gropes for other possibilities, he tells Dave that Dodge had not had any blood transfusions but had been under lots of work stress so might have gone to a woman prostitute from whom he picked up the virus. Dave replies, “That would be nicer, wouldn’t it?”

Getting people to see the truth is difficult, especially when fear and homophobia are everywhere present.

After Lieutenant Leppard examines the body at Brandstetter’s house, he puts the dead man’s personal effects into an envelope then “lifted the envelop to his mouth to lick the flap, then didn’t lick it. Instead, he folded the flap and fastened it with the little metal prong provided.”
Dave said, “You’re afraid of catching it.”

Later, when Brandstetter goes to the office of Drew Dodge Associates he meets Judith Ober, the office manager. After telling her Dodge had AIDS, she “picked up her cup, blew at her coffee. She nodded, but absently. She was worrying behind those glasses. Not with her commonsense. With primal panic. Thinking she was too young to die. From a coffee mug, from a kiss on the cheek. Thinking it was a hell of a note.”

Later, during an interview with the sister of an earlier victim, she admonishes and tells him “Go find the one who stabbed my brother to death. The police will do nothing. What do they care? He was only a faggot. Worse than that, he had a disgusting disease from doing disgusting things with his sex. They are happy Art is dead. They wish all faggots were dead.”

If anyone was going to solve the murder of six men and prevent further killings, Brandstetter would have to be the one to do it and he was on his own.

Be warned, however, that Hansen’s plots often take unexpected turns. This one is no exception, but I won’t spoil that surprise!

If you like mysteries and detective novels, this is one I recommend. After reading The Little Dog Laughed (Brandstetter #8) I was concerned that Hansen had lost his interest in the series. I am, however, happy to say that Early Graves shows I was wrong. Not only is the plot strong, but Hansen’s characters capture the fear and sadness of the HIV / AIDS epidemic in the 1980s when thousands of people were dying without hope of treatment.

Of the nine books I have read in this series, Early Graves is the most poignant and heartfelt. I highly recommend this one.

[Klaus Mattes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein letzter Triumph in der 12-er-Reihe um den schwulen Detektiv Brandstetter ist Teil 9, die AIDS-Sache. Auf diesem Niveau sind sonst nur die ersten vier Teile zwischen 1970 und 1978 gewesen! (Hollywood, Santa Monica, Laurel Canyon, Thousand Oaks, Pazifikküste nordwestlich von Los Angeles; Frühjahr 1987; Genre: Detektiv-Whodunit.)

Mit Furor geht er das Thema an. Am Ende seiner Sechziger hätte man dem Mann so viel „Für-die-richtige-Sache-Schreiben“ nicht zugetraut. Er war doch immer dezent, hatte das Schwule in jedem Buch, doch nie im Vordergrund.

Leider schlagen aber auch die ewigen Schwächen dieses Autors aus der Chandler-Schule wieder durch. Der beste Dave Brandstetter ist es auch nicht. Den muss man tatsächlich bei den Folgen 1, 2 oder 4 suchen. Auch hier wieder kommen einem die ersten drei Viertel des Buchs zwischendurch schon auch etwas lang vor und doch weiß man am Ende, dass sie die besten Teile waren und der Schluss ganz klar abfällt. Es ergeht also noch mal an alle, die es noch nicht zu lesen angefangen haben, die Warnung: Freut euch an all den Parallelhandlungen und den zum Teil sehr verschieden lebenden Charakteren, die der Versicherungsdetektiv (im Ruhestand) kennen lernt! Seht nur, wie viele Konturen und Details er auf so wenigen Seiten unterbringt, während wir vielleicht denken, er würde nur so dahin erzählen.

Es ist ein Buch nicht so sehr über AIDS und das Leid, das es den Kranken und deren Partnern gebracht hat, eher über die Hysterie in der real kaum gefährdeten sogenannten „Normalbevölkerung“ und das sofort wieder erwachende Sich-Fürchten vor sexuellen Außenseitern überhaupt. Noch heute sind die entsprechenden Passagen beklemmend zu lesen. Zumal der Autor, wie schon immer, sich jeglicher Wertung oder Einordnung dessen, was Dave hört oder sieht, enthält und auch Dave nie „zurückschlägt“ oder seine Fassung verliert, wenn jemand über Schwule herzieht. Den Moment, wenn jemand negative Meinungen über einen in den Fall verwickelten Homosexuellen äußert, gibt es eigentlich in jedem Buch und nie sagt Dave Brandstetter etwas dazu, der darin offenbar nicht seine Aufgabe sieht, sondern in der Lösung des Falls. Und den man halt auch nie für schwul hält, nur die Schwulen erkennen ihn meistens. In Hansens Büchern lügen auch kooperative Zeugen, verschweigen oder beschönigen etwas. Dann lässt sich Dave schon auch mal in eine Sackgasse schicken. Das sorgt für einen gewissen Grad an Wahrscheinlichkeit, auch wenn der Detektiv natürlich immer den Mörder findet und das Buchende überlebt.

Es geht los mit der Beerdigung des ermordeten Harold Dodge, eines Familienvaters und Entwicklers großzügiger Wohn- und Mall-Komplexe am Stadtrand von Los Angeles. Dodge, der Charmeur, der Sonnyboy – und, wie es bald ausschaut – der heimlich Schwule. Zumindest scheint ihn sich ein Serienkiller ausgesucht zu haben, der nur HIV-Infizierte tötet. Wer Brandstetter kennt, wird sich nicht wundern, dass dieser Dodge noch in anderen Schwierigkeiten drin gesteckt hatte. Das letzte Projekt war eigentlich schon gescheitert, der Mann so gut wie pleite. Wo er nun offenbar seine Familie als schwuler Mann betrogen hat, suhlen sich die Presse, namentlich auch sein angeblich bester Freund, ein Journalist, der ihn mit Investoren zusammengebracht hat, und auch der Politiker, der sich mit der Anschuldigung konfrontiert sieht, er hätte illegal Parteispenden in Dodges Unternehmen abgezweigt, in der Serienkiller-Story.

Serienmörder-Krimis fingen damals, in den späten 1980-ern, gerade an, die Welt der Spannungsliteratur zu erobern. Strukturell bedürfen solche Bücher allerdings eines zwanghaft vorgehenden Psychoten, dem der Leser, ohne ihn zu mögen, dann mit sadistisch-voyeuristischer Lust zusieht. Was ja nun überhaupt nicht das Vorgehen in Hansen-Romanen ist, in denen der Leser stets eine ganze Reihe von Figuren kennen lernt, von denen er nicht weiß, ob sie am Ende Haupt- oder Nebenrollen bekommen werden und ob sie Täter oder Opfer sein werden. Man runzelt als Leser schon auch die Stirn, wie ein alter Profi wie Hansen überhaupt auf die Idee verfallen konnte, einen Serienmörder in den guten alten Whodunit-Krimi hineinbringen zu wollen. Für den es nun mal eine überschaubare, eine abgeschlossene Gruppe von Menschen geben sollte, wo es einer so gut wie der andere hätte gewesen sein können.

Man sollte es vor der Lektüre von „Frühe Gräber“ vielleicht nicht verraten, damit der Leser sich, wie vom Autor geplant, auf die ausgelegten roten Heringe einlässt und einem MacGuffin hinterher denkt, aber ich sage es hier doch schon mal: Es kommt die Stelle, an der Joseph Hansen auf einmal sowohl den Serienmörder- wie auch den AIDS-Komplex für eher unwichtig erklärt und ganz andere Sachen nach vorn schiebt. Elegant ist das nicht, mustergültig kann das nicht mehr werden. Wie gesagt, das gute Buch endet schwach.

Es ist nicht wirklich überzeugend, wenn wir es, Dodge inklusive, mit sechs Ermordeten in einer Serie zu tun haben und dann kommt heraus, dass einer von ihnen in Dodges Firma tätig war und dass sie ein sexuelles Verhältnis hatten, also zwei von sechs, danach immer noch so tun, als wäre der Detektiv einem anonymen Monster dort draußen auf den Fersen. Auch sollte man sich fragen, ob es ähnliche Verbindungen bei den Übrigen auch noch gab. Diese Frage lässt Hansen Dave sich nicht stellen.

Auch nervt mich allmählich, je greisenhafter Körper und Gesundheit dieses Endsechzigers Dave werden, dass er in seinem Platzhirsch- und Macho-Selbstbewusstsein, namentlich auch seinen um Jahrzehnte jüngeren schwarzen Geliebten gegenüber, noch mal etwas unduldsamer und blinder gegenüber Ratschlägen wird. Dave Brandstetter ist nun mal der weise Löwe, der König der Savanne in West Hollywood und Malibu. Da hat sich im vorigen Buch die Perspektive einer Scheinehe von Daves Freund Cecil mit einer jungen Frau ergeben. Und jetzt wird er eifersüchtig, irgendwie könnten die jungen Leute sich ineinander verliebt haben. Prompt macht er die „Ich oder sie“-Alternative für Cecil auf, der - auch mit einem um gut 30 Jahre geringeren Lebensalter - so frei nicht wählen kann, denn er ist schwul und liebt diesen Alten. Nun, da schwingt vielleicht ein bisschen von Hansens monogamem Denken mit (selbstverständlich nie artikuliert, wie gesagt, der Mann geht nicht hausieren mit seinen Haltungen): „Wenn sie nicht ewig so viel herumgemacht, sondern sich zu zweit zusammengetan hätten für lange, wäre diese AIDS-Sache nie so groß geworden.“

[Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guessed the whodunit about halfway through, but there were plenty of leads for Dave to chase down, so I didn't get impatient with him taking so long to figure it out himself. I love his sass, as always, and how he's always a step or five ahead of the cops. And he's not one to mince words, which can be either very amusing or very disconcerting, and occasionally both, depending on the situation. There was some relationship troubles that made me very upset because Dave/Cecil is my OTP, but thankfully that nonsense got sorted out at the end.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a serial killer mystery. This book is a hard-boiled detective procedural. This book is about AIDS and its stigma in 1987. This book is about trusting friends and the limits of independence. This book is about aging and personal limits. This book is another really wonderful entry in a terrific series.

My favorite part of this book is the 80-year old woman translating The Dream of the Red Chamber. That part has almost nothing to do with all the other parts. Just enough.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic book in the Dave Branstetter series. In Early Graves, we find Dave attempting to solve the mysterious deaths of AIDS victims. As always, Hansen provides ample twists and turns in the plot to keep you guessing the entire time. I am so happy to have stumbled upon to this series. One of my very favorite detective series.

[Robert Fontenot · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books in the series although it is somewhat weighted down by continuity. We check in with characters from several of the previous installments as well as with Brandstetter’s soap opera of a personal life. Mostly though we get a rather scathing look at the AIDS epidemic circa 1987. It is harrowing to read and gives the book an urgency beyond the genre.

[CarolineFromConcord · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Early Graves* is the ninth in the Joseph Hansen mystery series about gay insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter. This episode is really special for its coverage of the AIDS epidemic in 1980s California -- the way it affected victims physically and emotionally, the way it affected misinformed straight people, the way everyone was reading up on it and collecting every newspaper and magazine article they could find.

A chapter that purports to be the scribbled autobiography of an angry, dying AIDS victim is pure genius. I have greatly admired Hansen's powers of description in the previous novels, but in this one, so close to his heart, he really outdoes himself. *Time* magazine justly called *Early Graves* "a field correspondent's breathtaking dispatch from a community in the midst of disaster."

Someone recommended to me when I first started this series that I should read the books in order, and it does make a difference. Hansen keeps bringing back characters and referencing earlier events. Unfortunately for me, I missed the episode that comes directly before *Early Graves,* so I was a little confused in the beginning about why Brandstetter and Cecil seemed to have split.

I, too, recommend you read the books in order, starting with a younger Brandstetter, recently returned from service in WWII. His age in the 1980s of *Early Graves* and the age of a few other gays of that time help explain why the scourge bypasses a few -- sometimes because they are now in committed relationships, sometimes because they have always protected themselves.

This book is not a tract, however. It's a good murder-mystery yarn, although the power of the story about someone killing young AIDS-infected gays in Los Angeles comes from the author's deep familiarity with the crisis.

Brandstetter, who usually investigates insurance fraud, gets drawn in to a different kind of adventure when a victim is deposited at his house -- a stranger with AIDS, murdered not quite according to the serial-killer pattern being reported in the local news. Are two killers with different motives involved? And if that's the case, what if any is the connection?

Complicating the investigation is the culture of the time, when fewer gays were open about their identities, when so much was hidden just to get through life.

And in this story, identities are not the only secrets. The local police, good as they are, would never untangle all the threads without a little help from our aging risk taker.

Highly recommended.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

And with this book, we arrive at the mid-1980s, and AIDS makes its apparition in this series. The case is related to it, as involves a serial killer who is going after men who has it.

Strangely, this time Dave is not sent to investigate any of the deaths; instead, he finds a dead man in his courtyard when he comes back from a business trip. A man who was intentionally left there, with one of his cards close by.

The mystery was, at least to me, very involving, and I liked how, through Dave's investigations, we get to see different people from different neighbourhoods in Los Angeles; all those different ideas and ways of life... and the toll that AIDS brought to a lot of them.

Dave's personal life is not going really good, as we could have imagined after the end of The Little Dog Laughed. And I must say that I really want to scream at Cecil. Does he don't know Dave? I think he really was trying to help Chrissy but he couldn't have done it in a worse way. He should have imagined that Dave would want nothing to do with him as long as he is a married man. And he should have told the truth to the girl: we get married and you get free of you alcoholic, pills-devourer mother, but that is all that it is to it. Instead, he made a terrible mess and complicated everybody's life :/

And I'm not a fan of the way in which the matter seems to be solved, either. But that's just a 'me' issue, really.

There is also a lot of talking and thinking about age in this book. Dave is feeling his years,

“I’m retiring.”
Owens stared. “You’re joking.”
“No, I’m fed up with hospitals. The world is getting meaner by the week. And I’m not quick enough anymore.”

And, as he says,

“I don’t want to die on some rainy sidewalk. I want to die in bed. With Cecil holding on to me.”

And given that there are only three more books, I guess Dave will retire soon. Argh, I'm dreading to finish this series!

[Jack Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Warning, there will be mild spoilers*

Like with Troublemaker, the third mystery in Hansen's series, I felt compelled to not put Early Graves down until I read a certain amount of chapters. The mystery here is very strong along with its backdrop. Given how visible AIDS was in the political climate and in pop culture, it adds a layer of unease to the case, especially given the angle it starts in. The stigma attached to the disease is well-depicted and can still be tracked in attitudes regarding sex among queer people (specifically gay men) and hypersexuality in general. That's part of why I enjoy these mysteries as much as I do. The transhistorical lens snags my attention on the reality of the current events Hansen depicts in his cases continuing to hold relevance.

The callbacks to previous books were also fun. I'd argue there's also a tragic note to them, though. Dave spends a portion of this book considering retiring from the insurance/private investigator game. It's an idea that he's tossed around in his head over the past couple cases, but here is where it sticks the landing. It's likely from a combination of having police officers look after him, his body aging, and his relationship with Cecil straining under the decision he made at the end of the last book (which we receive full contest for here). We also end this mystery on another tense note, which begs the question of how much Dave believes he can take. The years between books paralleling the years between cases also illustrates this fact. I've seen Dave go through a lot over the course of the series, and the continued nods to previous subplots (not to mention thought processes. Did Miles actually get in Dave's head?) make me more curious about the direction of the final fourth.

[Molli B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daaaaave. Ugh, I hate to think about him getting old, but he's definitely sprinkling around his thoughts about his age and about how he feels too old to be out there running around—I can't remember now where it was (damn unsearchable paperbacks!), but his line about just wanting to die in bed in Cecil's arms.... KILLING ME, DAVE. And the way Hansen isn't afraid to add a bunch of time here and there. In this one, Dave points out it's been 20 years since Rod died. Good grief! I don't remember in exactly which book that was, but I think Rod was around for at least the first few. I don't know what year the final book of the series was published, but I worry about Dave's mortality. :\

This was a good one. I mean, they're all good, but this felt extra good. I wondered if/when Hansen would address AIDS, and here it is. I sometimes feel like reading a series, or something like this, is a bit like time traveling—I knew it was coming, and I knew Hansen was going to run into it, and back in the early books I wanted to warn them. But it's like being in a Pensieve: you can yell all you want, but they'll never hear you.

Hansen really does fill his books with good secondary characters. It's quite the ragtag group he has around him, but I'm glad he always seems to have someone he can go to. (And just now, flipping through books 2 and 3 to see if Rod was around, I came across a few characters who are also in this one—I love the continuity!)

IDK how long I can wait to read the next one... but I'm down to just three. :(

[SB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started this on my last day of the second Florida retreat, and finished it while waiting for the rain to stop at a pre-baby resort in Puerto Rico. Very solid Brandstetter that starts with him finding a dead body with his business card on his front porch. Although it looks like another victim of a serial stabbed who is killing gay men with AIDS, it turns out to be an unrelated stabbing that’s tied up in blackmail and a business deal gone wrong (another shopping complex… wasn’t that the business in the last Brandstetter? Or am I getting it confused with the first season of Justified?). Brandstetter definitely seems like he’s tired of insurance investigations (even though this one is done on his own and not in connection with any insurance case) and even mentions retiring a couple of times. I know there’s several more books in the series. I’m hoping none is a prequel novel, because I’m really enjoying seeing him age over the course of the books.

[Timothy F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best Brandstetter mystery, but critical to understanding the death claims investigator arc

Written as if Brandstetter were aging and near retirement, this story continues to use characters from past Hansen novels. In Early Graves, Hansen focuses squarely on gay men confronting AIDS, societal responses and his protagonist’s personal connection to it all. The book gives more attention to Brandstetter’s personal history and highlights his connections with characters who were introduced previously. A must read if you are interested in the series and Hansen’s boldness for his times.

[Richard Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

i discovered this series three years ago. loved it. raced through the eight volumes in my local library and thought i had completed the series. just recently, i discovered that there are four remaining volumes. so here i am again, reconnecting with an old friend. this is sucha good collection of stories that make me both smile and wince. oh, and they all have new covers. looks like there's renewed interest in these classic works.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous cover design. RIP Mysterious Press.

Brandstetter tracks down a serial killer targeting people with AIDS. Lush descriptions of Los Angeles.

Hansen follows the tradition of slow burn character development over several novels that works so well in mystery genre series novels.

Brandstetter = a gay Harry Bosch. Mind you, Brandstetter was created by Hansen well before Connelly created Bosch.

[Kathy Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dave is older and no wiser. Fixed on an investigation with personal stakes. A number of characters from past stories cameo, which is a fun stroll down memory lane. Apart from a huge continuity issue around page 67---a big deal for me---writing is crisp and tight. As befits a villian, killer confesses out loud to the roaring seas for stealthy Dave to overhear. Forced and a bit cheesy.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy these books. Such an engaging mystery, with such wonderfully complex characters. This one did have me teary due to the subject matter of HIV/AIDS. And it did have me annoyed with Cecil and that a more direct parallel wasn't made between him and the main victim of the novel.

[Janet Marriott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fifth in the series. It deals with the homophobia the was rampant before aids became a chronic disease.

This is a well written mystery and a walk back into the not distant past when fear and homophobia killed. as surely as aids.

[John Stisk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book now, nearly 40 years after it was written, is a marvellous window into the world of AIDs. Written as a thriller but with a brilliant insight into the lives of those who suffered in the height of the pandemic and those left behind, and with the ruthless twist that Hansen adds to all his books. Excellent.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
I read many of the Brandstetter mysteries years ago and they’re still very good. There are some dated bits- Walkmans, telephone booths, little technology- but the stories aren’t built on that so they hold up

[Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Dave Brandstetter mystery always delivers!

[Ioana · Rating 4 out of 5]

AIDS is in LA. Lies have consequences. Dave refuses to lie.

[Richard Draper · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is a great writer but the best thing about this book is remembering the good and bad aspects of being gay in 1987.