This is the fifth of Joseph Hansen's series featuring insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter, and it's among the best in the bunch. As the book opens, Dave is going through some significant changes in his life but, as with any good P.I., the job always comes first.Dave's company has insured the life of Gerald Dawson, a man with deeply held religious convictions who was convinced that the world around him was going to hell in a hand basket. Dawson was determined to do what he could to at least slow the rate of decline, even if it meant breaking the law. He and associates from his fundamentalist church believed that they answered to a Higher Law and so felt no guilt about things like bashing gays and trashing bookstores that sold pornography.When Dawson is found in front of his garage with a broken neck, the police arrest the owner of a porn shop that had been vandalized by Dawson and his fellow vigilantes. The evidence against the shop owner seems slight, but it's good enough for the cops.Enter Dave whose company is about to be out a lot of money and who doesn't believe that the evidence against the store owner is all that compelling. Dave wants to know why the cops didn't find the victim's keys, especially since the guy was killed at his doorstep. Dave would also like to know why he found the victim's son burning kiddie porn in the back yard.The deeper Dave gets into the case, the more questions he has, and before long, he's wading through a cesspool of soft-core porn films, drugs, missing persons and religious fanatics. It's a thankless job, but somebody's got to do it, and before Dave is finished, it's going to be a very dangerous one as well.As I suggested above, this is one of the best books in the Brandstetter series. It's a tight plot; the characters are interesting and, as always, Dave's humanity shows through from beginning to end. The series was published between 1970 and 1991, and it established itself early on as one of the best of the P.I. series set in L.A. to follow Raymond Chandler. What set the series apart more than anything else was the fact that Dave Brandstetter was openly gay. Hansen presents this simply as a fact of life and in many of the books, Brandstetter's love life constitutes a theme of the novel, just as any other P.I.'s love life might. But there's little time for that here; Dave is awfully busy with the case at hand. As always, it's fun watching him work.
An enjoyable entry in the Brandstetter series. Dave's father has passed away, his relationship with Doug is virtually over, and he is now working for a new insurance company. The case: did the porn shop owner really waste the militant Christian activist that destroyed his shop? Dave thinks so. The plot is a little convoluted and arbitrary, but as usual Hansen gives us good LA atmosphere and some interesting characters. My favorite: a skinflick director with a sense of humor, doomed to fail because the regular clientele does not enjoy porn that is funny.
What do You think about Skinflick (1980)?
I thank Josh Lanyon for making me aware of Joseph Hansen's books. They are wonderful reads. Written over 30 years ago, his books still stand up as good mysteries. Looking back to an age of no cell or computers and a time when smoking and drinking were done almost automatically makes one realize how times have changed but people have not. Dave Brandstetter is an insurance investigator who looks for the little things that do not set right in the obvious murder scenario. He justs keeps poking into places he does not belong. He is an observer of people. It is what he does best. His private life is another story. It is a shambles. His Dad. His boyfriend, now ex-boyfriend. His job. His car. Nothing is going right. Dave has his priorities and the first is always the case. This case has him going into the world of cheap porn movies and young run-a-way girls. Not his usual turf. Hanson is an artist with words. He paints pictures for out mind but is never verbose. His characters, even the minor ones, are alive on the pages. He puts so much in such short works. This book is no exception. A truly captivating mystery well told.
—Deanna Against Censorship
I can't decide whether to love or hate the way that Dave's life goes on in the background of his cases. I love it, in that his sexuality and his family and his friends are all just a part of it, like he carries that everywhere he goes -- like real people do -- but I hate it, for the way that it means that those stories that I care about because I care about him are just background.Anyway, I do love the Brandstetter books, but I don't think this one is my favourite. I suppose in some ways the set up was all there, and I could have figured things out, but I found it a bit confusing. There was a lot going on, and a lot of potential suspects, some of whom weren't returned to. Sometimes it's a little implausible how deeply Dave gets involved in things he doesn't really need to do.I'm pretty used to the writing now: that or it's tightened up. A bit of both, perhaps. It doesn't bother me anymore if he does over-describe still.
—Nikki
