What do You think about Death Claims (2004)?
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. (view spoiler)[It is the sad example when the truth is not the best solution. I understand WHY Dave didn't believe that John Oats being a very good swimmer had drowned, WHY he had doubts that it was an accident. And I understand that he just did his job. It was also not totally wrong to have the son of John Oats as a prime suspect. But his investigations caused the death of Wade Cochran, the man Peter Oats was in love with. The man who was in love with Peter. The truth against the life of a human being. The truth against the happiness of two men. I understand that from the point of moral responsibility for crimes Dave has done the right thing. But this case made me soo sad and angry too: He found a real murder, but for which price... (hide spoiler)]
—Lena♥Ribka
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.
—Tfitoby
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 his beneficiary just days before . . . 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.
—Bill Kerwin
