This reading experience has left me flabbergasted. (let those jazz hands fly).

I'd to explain why.

This “Dave Brandstetter Mystery #1” was published in 1970 by an openly gay writer, Joseph Hansen, who created a series about an insurance detective in California who. . . wait for it, wait for it. . . was openly gay.

But, wait. . . not just “openly gay,” but making no apologies for it, in a public relationship with a man, and working as a detective for his father's insurance company. A father-son operation, no less.

And. . . what's even more exciting to me than what I've already mentioned: this detective, Dave Brandstetter, is nobody's victim. He does nothing more than be himself, and then the reader gets to watch while others, who assume that Mr. Brandsetter is a “tough guy,” as straight as the horizon, use rude language around him to describe other gay characters, assuming Dave isn't one of them.

They use words faggot, fairy and flit and other gems that some people have used to describe a man whose actions they've decided they just don't .

It's an incredible juxtaposition, to see Mr. Brandstetter doing his job while the homophobic world around him spits out their nonsense.

And it's a good reminder to all of us. . . that another person's nonsense is not about you, it's about them. At the end of the day, all of those ugly little gnats that are flying around that person's head are still in flight, but Mr. Brandstetter manages to casually brush those gnats away from his face and goes home, instead, to a good salad, a nice glass of wine and sometimes a romantic partner.

Oh, yeah. Have I mentioned that there are a couple of subtle scenes of some man-on-man action here? In this novel from 1970? Truly, I've come undone.

I've already ordered the next book in the series.70-from-the-1970s a-buck-and-change buddy-reads ...more104 s Bill KerwinAuthor 3 books83.2k


Dave Brandstetter, insurance investigator, is looking into the death of local radio star and mayoral candidate Fox Olson, who crashed his car through a bridge railing on a rainy night. Fox's body has not yet been found, and Brandstetter finds more than one reason to be suspicious.

This is the first book in a series featuring what is to my knowledge the first explicitly homosexual detective--and a very hardboiled detective at that. Brandstetter is sort of a gay Lew Archer--operating out of LA, disillusioned but still compassionate, discovering through the present the hidden secrets of the past.

Don't get me wrong, though: Hansen definitely has his own voice and is much more than a mere imitator. Also, for the first book in a series, this is very good.detective-mystery65 s Zain1,583 186

A Pleasant Treasure!

This is my first book I’ve read, written by Joseph Hansen.

His Dave Brandstetter series was written during the “swinging sixties,” so having a gay man as the hero might have been ably probably published because of the times.

The story touches several times on his personal life, and the life of gay people becomes relevant to the story.

In the story Dave is an insurance investigator, and he is investigating whether a popular radio performer is still alive after surviving a car crash.

This mystery is very enjoyable. It takes you all over the place reaching multiple conclusions and then, at the end explodes with a big surprise.

Will be looking out for the ebook version in the future.action-thriller classic mystery ...more70 s Nancy557 821

Cross-posted at Shelf Inflicted and at Outlaw Reviews

“Do you know these lines, Madge? The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction, the weight, the weight we carry is love…”

It was a real pleasure getting to know Dave Brandstetter. Though this series has been on my radar for a while, knowing this first book was published in 1970 put me off reading. Many of the stories I’ve read from the 70’s and 80’s featuring gay characters have ended tragically or portrayed their lives unfairly.

Dave Brandstetter is an insurance investigator working for his father’s company and investigating the death of entertainer Fox Olson. He’s also grieving the loss of his longtime partner, Rod, who died of cancer.

As the case unfolds, we also get a glimpse of Dave’s life with Rod, his relationship with his father, and his dedication to his job as he attempts to solve a complicated case. Unfortunately, an insurance claim cannot be paid out until a body is found. As Dave spends time interviewing the Olson family members and gathering evidence, he comes to the conclusion that Fox is still alive.

Joseph Hansen’s writing is terse and to the point. Though it’s not a style that will appeal to every reader, it works well with this story, giving it a realistic and unsentimental feel. The short sentences helped move the story along at a brisk pace, yet there was enough substance to make me feel very deeply for the characters. There is an undercurrent of sadness throughout that didn’t move me to tears, but left me with a very heavy, depressed feeling.

“It was only remembering the good times that kept you from taking the knife from the kitchen drawer and, holding it so, tightly in your fist, on the bed, naked to no purpose except that that was how you came into the world and how your best moments in the world had been spent – holding it so, roll onto the blade, slowly, so that it slid love between your ribs and into that stupidly pumping muscle in your chest that kept you regretting.”

Dave Brandstetter is a wonderfully refreshing character. I very much look forward to accompanying him on new cases and hope he finds love again.crime-mystery-thriller lgbt library-books ...more58 s Richard Derus3,153 2,082

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Description: Fadeout is the first of Joseph Hansen's twelve classic mysteries featuring rugged Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who is contentedly gay. When entertainer Fox Olson's car plunges off a bridge in a storm, a death claim is filed, but where is Olson's body? As Brandstetter questions family, fans, and detractors, he grows certain Olson is still alive and that Dave must find him before the would-be killer does. Suspenseful and wry, shrewd and deeply felt, Fadeout remains as fresh today as when it startled readers more than forty years ago.

My Review: I've recently completed a re-read of all twelve Brandstetter books. Why the heck not, it beats writing a new ending for my own book, right? Especially a book I thought of as done, but...oh heck, never mind.

My crazy mother bought this book when it came out because she d mysteries. It was a little too hard-boiled for her, but she got the next three or so because she just loved the writing. When I was about 12, she handed this one to me when I expressed my joy at reading The Maltese Falcon with the offhand remark, "oh well then, this one'll slay ya."

Wow. A gay OLD man! People me before there was a me!!

That really mattered to me, since there was such a lack of public and accepted gayness in the Austin of 1971. I remember knowing there were gay guys at the University because the sister who went there complained about it. I remember knowing the term "gay" from a friend of that same sister's who used it, and explained it when asked. The sister in question said, "oh geez he means queers, Rich, the faggots who mince around yelling about rights."

My mother is not the only judgmental and nasty woman I grew up with.

Well, that sort of interchange made Brandstetter all the more pleasurable for me to read! I loved him for being himself, despite his own father's disapproval, and for being a widower...a relationship ends before the series begins, and it was a revelation to me that such a relationship was *possible*. What a wonderful man Joseph Hansen must be, I thought, to create this unicorn of a character.

As the mystery unfolds, Dave Brandstetter does too. He learns so much about the victim, and so much of that resonates with him...Dave just can't stop the grieving he's going through for his dead love from connecting him to the people in his life, even as he makes the honorable choice not to take comfort that's offered to him by someone even more vulnerable than he is.

What I know now as someone older than the old man I thought Dave was in the book...Hansen knew what he was talking about when the subject is grief and grieving. Dave's pain made me weep as a kid. It does so much more to the grief-veteran old-man me...makes me sit, shocked, as I'm taken in to this most personal and intimate of places. Sex is less intimate than a person sharing this passage with you. As a re-reader, I had my initial youthful response in mind. Then the reality hit, and the impact was profound.

When there's writing this, storytelling this, out there in the world, why are so many people gobbling down so much crap?58 s Mark Porton468 553

Fadeout by Joseph Hansen is a succinct mystery about the disappearance of a guy called Fox Olsen in 1970s (I think) California. This is my first book by the author and I quite enjoyed his writing style, his sentences were almost bullet points at times, but they did the job. He created a vivid picture of Fox, his lifestyle as a gay man, and his friends and family. The interesting thing about Fox's disappearance is, his car was found but not him.

So is he dead or has he gone walkabout?

The distinction matters - well of course it does, because our main character, Dave Brandstetter, is an insurance company investigator. So he needs to find out what happened, because if he's dead his company needs to pay, if he's not dead - happy days! It was a nice twist on a mystery not being solved by a copper, using a insurance investigator is a nice change. It worked.

Oh, by the way Dave is gay too. In fact, there's a lot of gay references in this book, and we get a good perspective of some of the discrimination gay people have to contend with, such as being referred to as 'faggots' and nasty stuff that.

So we have a chop-suey of ly scenarios, a gaggle of unable characters and a wee dose of political intrigue (just a bit). The final outcome was satisfactory, and kind of made sense but I did have a problem with the ending - not so much the outcome of the mystery, just something involving Dave. It was all a bit too tidy for my untidy mind.

The author can write though and his description of a young lad with cerebral palsy called Buddy was so very well done:

Buddy's head yawed again in an unmeant parody of ecstacy. His mouth worked once more at the smile and the words "If you don't......mind....playing another.....potzer", Hoarse shout of indragged laughter, crooked wave of the hand

So it's really 3.5 from me, graded down because it's not a 4.

Thanks so much to Ebba and Julie for the buddy read :))

3 Starscrime-fiction modern-fiction mystery48 s Richard Derus3,153 2,082

Revisiting this read decades later, I am much more impressed with Author Hansen's feat of derring-do in writing the absolutely ordinary Dave as a queer gent of a certain age. These are excellent California Noir novels, as Michael Nava says in his Introduction, and it is homophobia and nothing else that keeps Hansen off the lists of the great practitioners of this art.

I thank you, Soho Syndicate, for republishing the series. Thanks, Edelweiss+, for the DRC. Most of all, and most heartfelt indeed, are the thanks I offer to my forerunner Joseph Hansen for holding the spiky branches back and showing my ever-searching eyes the safest path to being a good man was the honest one.challenge downloads edelweiss ...more47 s LenaRibka1,452 422

4,5 stars.

Preface:

My first Joseph Hansen book. And this date I should mark in my calender. Because to review a book of Joseph Hansen without mention the person Joseph Hansen itself is IMPOSSIBLE. He is the real pioneer of the gay mystery/thriller genre. Even if you are not a fan of this genre, but consider yourself a passionate MM-reader, then it belongs to your general knowledge to know this name: Joseph Hansen. Born 1923, died 2004(*sob*).

His twelve novels about Dave Brandstetter, an insurance claims investigator had a big influence on the works of the biggest writers of our time in this genre. You just should read the interviews with Josh Lanyon, Marshall Thornton, Michael Nava and a lot of other significant representatives of a gay mystery/thriller genre.

My review:

I have to confess that I was a bit afraid as I started Fadeout. Of course I wanted to it but I was not sure WHAT to expect from a GAY mystery that takes place at the end of 60s and was FIRST PUBLISHED 1970. I don't belong to the people who regularly watch black and white old movies.
HOW could it be possible to write a GAY MYSTERY with a NOT closet PI in the main role that takes place at the end of 60s?!
Wasn't our society much more prude than now?
The modern LGBT civil rights movement was at the very beginning.
How was it possible at that time to release a novel where the main hero was gay, not to castrate a plot and create such a great character that still inspires the increasingly growing generation of gay fiction writers?

To say that the first book of the Dave Brandstetter Mystery is well-written is an understatement. It is BRILLIANT. And it proves WHY Joseph Hansen and his protagonist Dave Brandstetter belong to the best what this genre can provide. I couldn't believe that it was written at at the end of the 60s! It is sooo refreshing, it is sooooo REAL, absolutely UP TO DATE!

One of my concerns were SEX SCENES.
Yes, we're a modern generation of MM readers, we need them, period. But will be there any at all? And if yes, how could the author find a balance between the genre and the acceptance of the society at THAT time, remaining credible and authentic. He did it very good. I can assure you. You won't be drown in a sea out of lubricant and cums, you won't be practically knocked unconscious by the weigh of many hard cocks. But there is SEX in the book. And it is quite provoking for THAT time.
Less is more.
His 12 Dave Brandstetter's novels were published between the early 70s and the middle of the 90s and I'm sure now that it will be also more sex, more feelings and more emotions in the next instalments. But it is NOT ROMANCE, in the first place it's an excellent mystery that presents realistic people with real feelings MORE THAN 40 YEARS AGO! I can hardly believe it! I had to remind myself during reading- it is the 60s, it is the 60s! Because you don't have this imagination at all!

The story:
We meet Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator and contentedly gay, in the difficult time of his life - his life partner died of cancer and the decision to return to work is his way to combat his own unresolved grief for a dead lover. And it is his first case in the series: The car of Fox Olson, an entertainer, happy husband and farther, was found in a storm, but without his body. Was it a suicide or did he just disappear and fake his death. And why? As Brandstetter questions family, fans, and detractors, he grows certain Olson is still alive and that Dave must find him before the would-be killer does.

Sounds interesting? It is. I spent all my day reading. Because I couldn't put it down! Not for a minute! I'm so excited to have yet 11 books of this series. I want to know more of Dave Brandstetter.
He is one of the best characters of a gay fiction genre - so loyal sharp-witted, courageous, amazing and soooo REAL.

So...Don't wait. Read it now. Better yesterday.


Highly highly recommended.


P.S I warned you already, it is a MUST READ for all MM-reader. But if you read preferably ONLY MM-romance books, if you don't mystery, you should better skip this one.
mystery-suspence-thriller42 s JoshAuthor 181 books5,182

First gay mystery I ever read; Hansen became the writer I compare all other GLBT mystery writers to (usually unfavorably).influential-books39 s jay866 4,979

welcome to 202-Queer
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