Early Graves

A Dave Brandstetter Mystery, Book 9

By: Joseph Hansen

Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka

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.

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.

©1987, 2003 Joseph Hansen (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The pain and fear of AIDs era is alive in this story

For those of us that lived and dealt with this scourge, the story may trigger some painful memories of how people first reacted when AIDs became more prevalent to the world and the general public. The story also has its many twists and turns that this series of mysteries is known for.

A rare misstep in an exemplary series

The mystery was sacrificed for melodrama. The Cecil and Chrissy storyline was completely unnecessary and unbelievable. She had to know that it was a sham and how did Cecil think Dave would react to this stupid decision? Then how neatly and suddenly it ended further eroded the plausibility of that storyline. The best mysteries have clues and presents suspects throughout the story and do not just introduce a character out of the blue at the end who vomits exposition to justify them being included at all. Joseph Hansen is better than this. This was lazy writing and would have resulted in Annie Wilkes forcing him to rewrite a lot of it. I thought you were good, Joseph but you're just an old dirty birdy.