Death Claims

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.

"He's not here. I wish he were. Maybe you can help me. The police don't seem to care."

She was April Stannard. Her lover, Peter's father, had died. April believed he'd been murdered.

Dave Brandstetter's investigation takes him through the rare-book world, to backstage at a community theatre, to the home of a world-famous television performer. Along the way, Dave soon comes to agree with April.

My Review: Small-town California has a lot of atmosphere, according to Hansen; I don't remember it that way, but I was young and show more miserable, so I'll go with the man who found there something that led to this description of an old mill made into a theater:

The waterwheel was twice a man’s height, wider than a man’s two stretched arms. The timbers, braced and bolted with rusty iron were heavy, hand-hewn, swollen with a century of wet. Moss bearded the paddles, which dripped as they rose. The sounds were good. Wooden stutter like children running down a hall at the end of school. Grudging axle thud like the heartbeat of a strong old man.

Beautiful.

It's with this book, second in the series, that Hansen's chops come fully into play. He's here to wow you, and he's got the story to keep you sitting right there flipping pages. April, the bereaved, is Rita Hayworth in my mind; Oates, the dead guy, looks like John Garfield; Peter, the son and heir, is Cabaret-era Michael York; and so on and so on. (Eve, Oates' ex-wife, is Barbara Stanwyck.) I do this a lot, cast the perfect movie cast as I read along. But this time it felt as if it was all done for me. Oates' murderer, when revealed, was a surprise to me even though this was a re-read. And the actor I'd put in the role was perfect...no testament to my skills, just an example of how beautifully Hansen draws his characters.

Dave's got a man, too...how amazing for the 1970s! I so wish this had been a TV series. Magnum PI only gay! *sigh* What might have been....


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I'm on a bit of a Joseph Hansen/Dave Brandstetter binge right now. Hanson's a wonderful writer with a good ear for dialogue and a sense of which details will set a scene appropriately. Brandstetter, Hansen's central character and a death claims investigator for an insurance company, is equally wonderful. He's a gay man living in the 60s/70s, surprisingly honest about who he is, cultured, articulate, brusque, and far too sharp for anyone around him engaged in nefarious activities to have any chance of getting away with something.

These mystery novels are great reads in their own right. They're also stand-outs because of their central character. Getting the reading public to embrace a character like Brandstetter may not seem like a major show more accomplishment these days, but this series was first published beginning 50 years ago. A great mystery and a lesson in a crucial moment in the development of the genre—what more can a reader ask for?

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own. show less

The second of Hansen's "Dave Brandstetter" Mysteries follows Brandstetter, an insurance claim investigator, looking into a fishy-seeming 'accidental' drowning. Piece by piece, he uncovers suspects, lies, motives, and passions, taking him into the local theater and the rare books business until he solves the murder and catches the culprit.

Brandstetter comes across tough, jaded, and wholly logical. The story is completely told in second person, but the reader never sees the inside of Brandstetter's head and never sees him crack. The story is a series of facts, all the way to its conclusion. At its end, I'm left with only a cold feeling of 'mission complete', without any sense of accomplishment for the main character, or any feeling for show more the other characters. show less

Dave Brandstetter returns, this time to investigate the drowning of a man with a large life insurance policy. The police ruled the death and accident, but Brandstetter disagrees. Like the first book in the series, this one is remarkable for its frank discussion of homosexuality. Aside from that, it's a pretty average mystery.

Insurance investigator Brandstetter is checking into what would seem to us now to be a modest death claim, and finds a curiously incomplete story he can't resist completing. Although the book rings the changes among just about everyone who could have done it, the story is engaging, and we learn even more about Dave's personal life.

Our hero is an insurance investigator working in the Los Angeles area. Fear of being outed as homosexual plays a large role. Quite good.

This is a great novel: Hansen is a disciplined and entertaining writer. The action is fast-paced and unpredictable. "Death Claims" is expertly crafted genre-fiction and a beautifully-written piece of literature.