This is the twelfth and final entry in Joseph Hansen's excellent series featuring insurance investigator, Dave Brandstetter. Published over a period of twenty-one years, from Fadeout in 1970, to this book in 1991, the series was witty and very well-written, with cleverly-plotted stories and well-drawn characters. Set in southern California, the books also captured perfectly the geography and the social and economic currents of the place and time. What really set these books apart was the fact that Hansen created in Dave Brandstetter the first openly gay P.I. to inhabit a series like this, and neither Hansen, not his protagonist ever made a big deal out of it. Dave's sexual orientation was made clear from the opening pages of the first book, and it was simply a fact of life, just like the sexual orientation of any other detective. Dave had a love life and was active sexually throughout the series, but it never seemed intrusive or in any way out of the ordinary. In fact, Dave's romantic attachements were much more believable than those of many of his heterosexual fictional contemporaries.As the series opened, Dave was already a middle-aged man and by the first pages of this one, he is nearing seventy. Many of the friends who populated the series with him are gone now; the others are all retired. Dave himself is not well; he tires easily and aches all over. His long-time lover, Cecil, begs him to see a doctor, but Dave dismisses the idea and claims he hasn't the time.The story opens when a friend calls Dave in a panic. A young boy has apparently witnessed a murder and was then kidnapped by the woman he saw standing over the body. The boy, who has clearly been abused, manages to escape from his captor, whose name is Rachel Klein, and is found wandering along a beach by Dave's friend. The murdered victim, Cricket Shales, was a musician who has just been released from prison after serving time on a drug charge. He and Klein, who is also an addict, were once an item and she apparently feared he was coming back for her.The cops arrest Klein and are ready to declare the case closed. But Dave is not so sure that Klein is guilty and so continues his own investigation of the case, even though he has allegedly been retired himself for a couple of years. In the process, he will put his own life and health in jeopardy.The story itself is a good one, with lots of twists and turns, but in this book, the mystery takes a back seat to the health problems that are obviously ailing Dave. Along with Cecil, readers have worried over Dave's physical decline, especially in the last couple of books, and it's clear where this one is headed. As one nears the end of the book, it becomes especially hard to turn the pages and you want to linger over every last word.When we finally reach the end of the case, and of Dave's career, it's a sad and elegiac moment. But one closes the book with a deep appreciation of what was a ground-breaking and very special series. Hansen was as good as any other crime writer of his era and this is a series that readers will remember long after they have forgotten most others.
I wasn't eager to read the 12th and final book in the Dave Brandstetter's mysteries, exactly because I knew it was the last. Of course Hansen had to stop the series somewhere, still it was so good that I would have liked it to go on forever. Anyway, given that unending series don't exist, somehow the end fitted.We find again Dave mourning departed friends and noticing that he is getting old. Some some symptoms appear that he wants to ignore, even though Cecil is worried.I really didn't want to let go of Dave and Cecil. Hansen excels also in depicting secondary characters though: they come alive in his pages, even when their appearance is short. BTW I wondered how much of Joseph Hansen self is in the character of David's old friend Jack Helmers, also a mystery writer: the initial are the same, he lost his wife (Hansen was married to a lesbian: "a gay man and a woman who happened to love each other."), he had a slightly contemptuous view of mysteries (''I can write those in my sleep. This book meant something...'').Once more I can't help noticing the light years separating these books from most other similar books I've read. I wish Hansen would have been more appreciated. Here The Guardian's obituary: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/...Hansen's blog still exists, it is a bit sad to read his last entries. I wish it would be possible to eliminate the spam that was posted to the last entry and mixed to the comments expressing appreciation of Hansen's work: http://josephhansen.blogspot.fi/
What do You think about A Country Of Old Men (1991)?
This detective series has been one of my all time favorites. I remember reading each book as they were first issued as a youth and young man. I remember how much they meant to me as a gay young person. For some reason I missed the last several books and am currently reading them, This book and story holds up to current tastes and sensibilities. This book also ruminates on aging and dying which resonates with me very much since I am past my prime very much as the main character is. Just loved this book and I intend to start the series again.
—Angel Pedroza
Last book in the DB series. Broke my heart. Dave is full of nostalgia, and heartbroken by the loss of so many friends, and the ravages of AIDS among the people he knows. He has retired but he is working on one last case (of course!). He now tires easily, and he keeps drinking and smoking, no matter what Cecil says. Dave here reminds me of his father: what's the point of living longer without the vices that make life worth living?The end is unexpected. -------This series is a great one. Dave Brandsetter is an AMAZING character, I read the series on a marathon because I NEEDED to read about him. He is FASCINATING, a tough cold bastard who always gets the job done. He is a loving son: his relationship with his father is one of the best things in the series, He is a faithful and committed lover: he has a real capacity to love and love unreservedly, which is unexpected from such a cynical man, an Insurance Claim Investigator who has sees the darkest sides of human nature in his job. After loosing his first partner (22 years together), he manages to fall in love again, with a much younger man. He did not give up on love when many peers were just interested by meaningless fuck. He does not cheat when many consider cheating on a lover a non event. He is a loyal friend and I loved is relationship with his father's young widow (younger than Dave!), and his many friends. I'll miss Dave and his friends.
—Edina Rose
An excellent conclusion to one of my favourite detective series. Hansen's portrayal of an aging but incapable-of-giving-up-working Dave Brandstetter is even richer and more poignant here than in previous books, in my view. So many moving moments within the narration, all filtered through Dave's perspective, his humanity and integrity shining as always but perhaps taking an even more compelling quality and significance here. I've grown so fond of Dave, Cecil, Amanda and some of the minor recurring characters in this series as if they're my real life friends that it's really difficult to let them go and not to wish for an additional scene, an additional conversation, but this is just my greed talking. In fact, so much is already revealed from relatively few words, actions and thoughts, which makes them even more significant and memorable.
—Paola
