This was interesting as one of the first mystery novels starring an openly gay protagonist. Must have paved the way for many other authors in the genre.

. Joseph Hansen’s first Dave Brandstetter mystery, Fadeout, was published fifty years ago in 1970. Because Soho’s Syndicate Books is republishing the books, I recommend that you read this edition. If you haven’t already discovered the series, you’ll want to read Michael Nava’s new introduction to these books.

Although Hansen himself hated the term “gay”, and preferred homosexual, for the sake of the review, I’ll use the current language. Dave Brandstetter was one of the first openly gay lead characters in a mystery novel. The book is set in the mid-60s. Dave is in his mid-forties, a World War II vet. Nava says he has a quick wit and a “faultless moral compass”. According to Nava, Brandstetter is smart, masculine, competent, an unapologetic homosexual, and an ace private investigator. The character was “groundbreaking” for the 1970s.

After his partner of twenty years died, Dave considered suicide. He has just returned to work at the family insurance company, Medallion Insurance, when a family files a claim. Brandstetter’s father sends his best investigator, Dave, to question witnesses and survivors. On a rainy night, Fox Olson hit a guardrail on a bridge, and the car went into the water. However, no body has been found, and Dave tells the widow that the insurance company isn’t sure the man is dead.

Pima, California is Thorne Olson’s hometown, and she insists Fox has to be dead. For the first time in his life, he’s successful as a radio star with a number of prospects. He wouldn’t just disappear when they now have everything they ever wanted. But, as Dave investigates, he’s not sure that Fox Olson has everything he ever wanted.

Michael Nava says Fadeout is about loss and opportunities missed. It’s a beautifully written novel introducing a compassionate PI who has experienced loss himself. Dave’s heart is so obvious with his immediate connection to a boy with a disability, and his anger at the poor treatment of the young man. He tries to give advice to a friend who is hurting, but his own behavior isn’t a good example for her, and he understands her reaction. Because of his own loss and life, he empathizes with Fox Olson, a man who struggled to achieve a dream for his wife when he couldn’t find his own.

There is writing that just jumped out at me in this book, a turn of phrase here and there. “Some marriages,” Dave said, “should be called on account of darkness.” I savored the writing in this book. Hansen did receive the Eye Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, but none of his novels received awards. In his introduction, Nava reminds us that when Fadeout was published in 1970, being gay was illegal in 49 out of 50 states. There are unspoken reasons the books never received the attention they undoubtedly deserved.

I have copies of the next two books in the series. I have other books to read at the moment, but I’ll certainly pick up the next books when I have a chance. I liked Dave Brandstetter. And, I really liked Joseph Hansen’s writing.

It’s high time these influential gay crime novels were back in print. Joseph Hansen was a trailblazer. It’s also a fitting tribute that Michael Nava, another brilliant crime writer, did the forward of this reprint. Highly recommended!

There's a singular joy in discovering a "new to you" author and then learning the book is only the first of twelve (12) books in the Dave Brandstetter Mystery series.

Set in California in the mid 1960's, Dave is mourning the loss of his lover Rod with whom he shared 20 years. He is open about his homosexuality and honest about his grief. "He'd made up his mind to live now. Hadn't he? Live and forget - at least until he could remember without pain. And that would happen someday. Sure it would. All the books said so."

But what the characters in Fadeout initially see is a 40's-ish tall, slim elegant man with a keen mind, and a quiet determination to get to the bottom of this case. He's Don Draper without the family issues, alcohol issues, and well .... issues.

Dave, a death claims investigator for Medallion Insurance, is investigating the disappearance of local celebrity Fox Olson, a man who we slowly learn has closed himself off from his past, and allowed his own grief to remain quietly unexamined. And as Brandstetter unfolds the mystery layer by methodical layer, it all becomes almost overwhelming in its sadness for what may have been.

Simply put, Joseph Hansen is a stellar writer who tells what appears on the surface to be an unsentimental murder mystery in the most heart-breaking sentimental way possible. 5 stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher Soho Press- Soho Syndicate for an advanced copy of the first book of this classic mystery series.

The mystery genre has many lost classics, books that were either to ahead of their time, went to much against their time, or lacked that cache that kept the book in culturally memory. Syndicate Press, has announced a reprint of the classic David Brandstetter mysteries, a series of twelve books well ahead of their era, written by Joseph Hansen.
Fadeout, the first book in the series introduces our detective, an insurance investigator, looking into the death and or disappearance of a popular radio star host, who had plans for bigger things, in the mid 1960's. A war veteran, good looking, with a strong liver for drink, honestly these hardboiled detectives blood types must come with an alcohol proof number, Brandstetter is also gay, and a man hurting. Brandstetter's long time companion, a man he met after World War II has died of cancer only weeks before and he has thrown himself a case that has many more questions than simple answers. And the more he looks, more secrets come to light.

David is a fascinating character. Smart, tough, a member of the knight errant school with alumni like Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, yet proudly gay and despairing. Loss is a major them of this book, not just lost love, but lost dreams, and lost time. All the time wasting pretending to be what a person was not. I can't imagine what discovering a book like this for people who craved anything in the way of representation or recognition. Written at a time when homosexuality was a crime in almost all 50 states, this proud man, going about his life looking for the the truth.

As I wrote earlier there are twelve books in the series, ranging from the mid 60's to the early 90's. David ages, finds love again, losses friends from AIDS, but he goes on. He continues to fight for what is true, and for all those left behind and ignored. Not just a good mystery series, but great fiction.