Joseph Hansen
Personal Information
Description
Joseph Hansen was an American crime writer and poet. Although he published almost forty books in a wide variety of genres, Hansen is best remembered for his ground breaking series of crime novels starring his most iconic creation, Dave Brandstetter, an openly homosexual private eye who still embodied the tough, no-nonsense personality of the classic hardboiled protagonist. His first adventure, Fadeout, was published in 1970, and over the next twenty-one years eleven more entries in the series were written. Hansen published his first work, a poem, in The New Yorker, in 1952. He also published poetry in other magazines, briefly sang with a folk-music-group on a California radio-station, and had several part-time jobs in bookstores and magazines. At the beginning of his career as a novelist, Hansen wrote under the pseudonym James Colton or James Coulton, producing novels such as Strange Marriage and Known Homosexual. He also wrote two gothic novels under the pseudonym Rose Brock. Hansen was also noted for writing poems, teaching workshops, and hosting a 1960s radio-show called Homosexuality Today. In 1970, he helped to found the first Gay Pride Parade in Hollywood. Hansen disliked the term "gay" and always described himself as "homosexual".1 1. [Wikipedia]
Books
The man everybody was afraid of
Police Chief Ben Orton had a gift for making enemies. When his body was found, head smashed in, the people of his seaside domain were shocked--less because of the gruesome murder than because someone had finally dared to cross Ben Orton.
Steps going down
"A Dave Brandstetter story involving a male prostitute who entices his young lover to commit a series of crimes leading up to a murder"--Best Books for Public Libraries, c1992, p. 389.
A Country of Old Men
Book #12 in the Dave Brandstetter series. After twenty-one years on the detective beat, aging veteran P.I. Dave Brandstetter is finally going to get some rest--that is, after one last case. Even though he is no longer able to sprint after the bad guys like he used to, Brandstetter is not stopped from investigating this wild tale of kidnapping and murder told by a bruised and grubby little boy found wandering the beach alone. The police don't even believe the kid--just as they don't believe that the drug-related shooting death of a pop guitarist in anything out of the ordinary. So Dave is lured out of retirement to confront street drugs, powerful politicians, sleazy record executives, child abuse.and to unravel as snarled a tangle of carnage and deception as he's ever faced.
Nightwork
From Goodreads: Book #7 in the Dave Brandstetter series In a remote spot outside L.A, a giant truck suddenly plunges in flames off a mountain road at midnight. It looks like an accident, but it isn't. Someone had fastened a bomb under the truck, killing owner-driver, Paul Myers who was insured for $100,000. Crack insurance investigator, Dave Brandsetter is called in to find out what happened and why. Why was Myers hauling in that secluded spot at that hour and for whom? No one wants to answer Dave's questions but then another trucker's death arouses suspicions and a pattern begins to emerge.
Death claims
Death Claims is the second of Joseph Hansen's acclaimed mysteries featuring ruggedly masculine Dave Brandstetter, a gay insurance investigator. When John Oats's body is found washed up on a beach, his young lover April Stannard is sure it was no accident. Brandstetter agrees: Oats's college-age son, the beneficiary of the life insurance policy, has gone missing.
Troublemaker
Jack of Hearts
Recounts Jack of Hearts' triumph at the tournament despite the plotting of the wicked King of Spades.
Backtrack
From a review by "Drew Brainiard" on Amazon.com: Seventeen-year old Alan Tarr lies in an abandoned beach house,his legs in casts, waiting for the man who tried to kill him....BACKTRACK is beautifully written with fully-realized (memorable) characters, exquisitely evoked mood, and biting humor. Written in the days when authors didn't have to pad with extraneous subplots and other filler, every word counts in this little gem of a book; if I had to pick my favorite Hansen mystery it would be BACKTRACK, and the story of Alan Tarr who comes to Hollywood to discover what became of his father....Effectively alternating between 'Now' and 'Then' chapters, we follow Alan's journey of discovery...to the inevitable showdown.
Obedience
#10 in the Dave Brandstetter Mystery series With retirement just out of reach, Dave Brandstetter investigates the killing of a Vietnamese immigrantAs an insurance investigator, Dave Brandstetter has spent his life unraveling suspicious deaths. Now, well into middle age, he has decided to retire for the sake of Cecil, the young TV reporter who loves and cherishes him, and has too often risked his own life for Dave’s work. But retirement does not come easily. An old friend in the public defender’s office asks Dave to help Andy Flanagan, a shiftless young man accused of murdering a Vietnamese businessman to defend the Old Fleet—a shantytown of houseboats that has been earmarked for development. Unable to resist the case, Dave heads to the Old Fleet and begins asking questions. Beneath the surface of this oil-slicked slum lurks an international conspiracy so appalling that Dave will regret postponing his retirement. Obedience is book ten in the Dave Brandstetter Mystery series, which also includes Troublemaker and The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of.
Fadeout
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 thirty years ago.
The Boy Who Was Buried this Morning
From Goodreads: Book #11 in the Dave Brandstetter series Author Joseph Hansen and his fictional sleuth Dave Brandstetter are both brand-name commodities in the mystery and gay fiction genres. In this 11th novel featuring the gay detective, Brandsetetter is called out of semi-retirement to investigate the apparently accidental shotgun deth of his lover's co-worker. Whst unfolds is a gripping tale of blackmail and murder set in a sleepy California town, where nothing is as innocent as it appears.