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A vicious murderer is targeting gay men in Los Angeles, and it isn't long before Dave Brandstetter finds himself in the killer's path Dave Brandstetter's afternoon does not begin well: His ex-boyfriend picks him up at the airport, and the ride home--in bumper-to-bumper Los Angeles traffic--is one long argument between them. The insurance investigator's day gets worse when he finds a man--bloody, rain-soaked, and ice cold--lying on his porch, killed by a stab wound while Dave was out of town. show more There is a serial killer loose in Los Angeles, and this man is his sixth victim. Like the others, he had already been marked for death--by the unforgiving plague known as AIDS. Someone is targeting sick men in the city, and Dave's search for the killer leads him into the dark side of gay Los Angeles, where death comes without warning, and life is a fearful dream. Early Graves is book nine in the Dave Brandstetter Mystery series, which also includes Troublemaker and The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Interesting? But maybe more in a historical insight sense than for the story itself. As to the mystery, I got lost about halfway through the book as to what was happening and what we knew. But the story is very tied to current events at the time it was written, with Dave trying to find the killer of a gay man with AIDS who was left on his doorstep for him to find. I do like Hansen's approach, which doesn't gloss over the prejudices of the time or the tragedy and horror of things, but he also makes it a point to include people who help and love and who are doing their best to live their lives honestly.
I read this series because I like Dave and how Hansen develops Dave's personal life over the course of the series. This book is a bit of a show more low point for Dave, due to something done at the end of the last book. Adding that to the AIDS crisis, it makes this book a bit sadder than the book preceding it. show less
I read this series because I like Dave and how Hansen develops Dave's personal life over the course of the series. This book is a bit of a show more low point for Dave, due to something done at the end of the last book. Adding that to the AIDS crisis, it makes this book a bit sadder than the book preceding it. show less
Early Graves
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Good LGBT fiction for LGBT folk and friends
537 works; 54 members
Author Information
51+ Works 4,722 Members
Joseph Hansen was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, on July 19, 1923. He attended Pasasdena City College. Hansen's fiction began to appear in the 60s. He published under the pseudonym James Colton because of the homosexual characters and themes of his work. He had published five novels and a collection of short stories when "Fadeout," the first of show more the Brandstetter mystery novels, was released. It is this series of 12 novels, which was published from 1970 to 1991 for which Hansen was most well known. Hansen wrote almost 40 books, which included novels and a series of semi-autobiographical works. He also taught fiction workshops, published poems in The New Yorker and produced a local radio show in the 60s called "Homosexuality Today." In 1965 he founded the pioneering homosexual journal Tangents. In 1974 Hansen was awarded a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1992 he won the lifetime achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America. Joseph Hansen died on November 24, 2004 at the age of 81 from heart failure. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Early Graves
- Original publication date
- 1987
- People/Characters
- Dave Brandstetter
- Dedication
- In memory of Wayne Placek
Music, and lights, and laughter,
And after these, the dark...
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Statistics
- Members
- 223
- Popularity
- 145,688
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.84)
- Languages
- Danish, English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 13
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 9
