Reviews - Josh Lanyon, Joseph Hansen
Nov. 27th, 2010 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanI Spy Something Bloody (Josh Lanyon)
Josh Lanyon's work is all, I'm finding, pretty enjoyable. This is different again to the ones I've read before, this time involving an ex-spy. It was interesting to read this, having read the Adrien English books: the voice of the one who did the hurting, rather than the one who was hurt.
I'm not sure how much I liked Mark. He'd say that he didn't expect much from Stephen, and yet he'd be surprised when Stephen pulled away. He didn't seem to have any idea of the boundaries that I think most people internalise. I think, without much personal experience, that the PTSD Mark has to deal with is reasonably well dealt with, anyway. I liked Stephen, though sometimes he was too perfect.
One thing that bothered me was how very stereotypical the brief portrayal of Lena was. "Motherly black woman" who works as a servant to a white man -- really?
The tension between Mark and Stephen is well done, though, and the action scenes are pretty good.
I Spy Something Wicked (Josh Lanyon)
I Spy Something Wicked is shorter than the first story, and focuses almost entirely on Mark and Stephen's relationship -- yes, it's under stress, and Mark still seems to have PTSD, but they're trying to work things out. Some parts of it are incredibly sweet, and it feels quite real.
I was immensely glad at the end. I was rather worried that Mark hadn't learnt anything last time round.
The Complete Brandstetter (Joseph Hansen)
Although I didn't rate any of the books higher than four stars, as a collection they deserve five stars. There's a whole variety of stories and characters within these pages, all of them well worth spending some time with -- most notably, Brandstetter himself. He's an openly gay detective, and the novels all engage with the issues gay people face, but also with racial issues. It's not always perfect, but it's an honest attempt.
Unlike Chandler's Marlowe, who you may think of at first when you read this, Dave's got a life and a family and friends outside of his life as a private investigator. After a while, you'll probably find yourself reading for that, more than anything else. I certainly did.
Fadeout (Joseph Hansen)
My housemate is using the Brandstetter series in her dissertation on gay crime fiction, and assured me that I'd enjoy the series, that it's good, although heartbreaking at times. That last part came through right away, with the painful death of Rod, Dave's lover, as background.
It reminds me a lot of Chandler, too. Housemate says that's intentional, which I'll have to take on faith, because my edition doesn't have anything by way of introduction. Sometimes it's painfully so, in that Chandler nails it, always, and Hansen nails something that sounds Chandleresque. I assume his voice develops as he writes more about Dave, which will help, but... I love Chandler's imagery, the crisp clarity and difference, which makes every single sentence sound effortless and casual and yet telling and profound. Not a scrap of spare in Chandler's work. In Hansen's work, and probably partly 'cause I'm busy doing a class on microfiction which involves a lot of workshopping, I sometimes wanted to take my red pen to it. That's not to say it's not good. When it doesn't seem, to me, as if it's trying too hard to be Chandler, it works perfectly.
That sounds much more critical -- less like I enjoyed it -- than is actually the case. Fadeout is pretty short and sweet, in comparison to the books I normally read, and I'd have happily sat down and read it in one go. I like the character of Dave Brandstetter. I don't know him well yet, but I think I will. I like that he has a life outside work, which doesn't really overlap with work: Madge, and his mourning for Rod. He's more of a real person than Phillip Marlowe, maybe.
The mystery itself wasn't, for me, the centre of things, though it quickly becomes apparent that that, too, is involved with the issue of homosexuality. I did like the characters and lives we see glimpses of, and I rather hope we'll see more of Doug. The mystery itself, because I didn't focus on it, was a bit of a surprise to me -- not how Dave finds out, or the motive, but exactly who it was.
Death Claims (Joseph Hansen)
Minor spoiler here, not about the identity of the murderer, but about a subplot involving Doug.
The only thing that turns me off Joseph Hansen's writing is the thickness of the description. It's vivid, but it's too vivid: a paragraph worth of setting the scene every single time, adjective piled on adjective. They're good descriptions, and I guess it's all a part of his style, but sometimes it gets in the way.
He is good with characters, though. For all the similarities to Chandler, I like the way he handles characters much, much more. Even the ones you don't see much of, I care about. Peter Oats is absent most of the story, but I care about him, and sometimes when people are suspected, you don't want it to be true. I called it, in this story -- something about the way the lens of the story never swung round to one particular guy who I was ready to have suspicions about.
Didn't call all the twists and turns, though, and there's a lot of stuff in the background to care about, too -- Madge, and Doug, and Doug's mother. I loved the glimpses of Doug and Dave's relationship, loved that Dave made it work out. With the private investigator tropes of being alone against the world -- like Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, since the comparison is an obvious one -- you have to worry that Dave will just let it go, do whatever hurts less, and he doesn't. He chooses people who are alive over the dear departed. I love that.
Troublemaker (Joseph Hansen)
I liked the mystery in this one -- I actually got there pretty quickly, then discarded the thought, only to take it up again later. I only liked a couple of the characters involved, mostly Tom Owens, but because of him I cared about how it all shook out, so there you go.
I have my usual reservations about Hansen's writing, but I'm getting used to it. And it's not bad, anyway: I whisper it to myself, generally, because it sounds good -- I always do that with well-written books, like with Chandler, and not with Agatha Christie. Like that. Anyway, the problem with Hansen's description is that there's so much of it, sometimes it turns meaningless by the end of the paragraph and becomes just sound. Which is a shame, because used a bit more conservatively, it'd be amazing.
I wanted to see more of Doug. I guess Brandstetter's life is always going to come in snatches between the plot, but I do want more of it. I want to see Doug's reaction when Dave gets home after not being able to help Doug because he was too busy minding everyone else's business. I want to know if that's alright with Doug -- and I kinda think/hope it would be.
The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of (Joseph Hansen)
Just once, I'd like to see Brandstetter tackling a case involving straight people. In a way, it's great that there are gay people of all stripes in these books. In another way, it's not like a gay detective has to work with gay people all the time. Not all his cases are going to be about gay people, unless he deliberately only represents gay people, which would be a whole different story.
Still, I love how matter-of-factly gay Dave is, how it's just a part of him. I like the fact that he has a family, a social life, outside of the job. I love him, and I'm getting frustrated by the bite-size snippets of his life because I want more of it.
(If we got more, it might be disappointing. It walks a line, here, in giving us enough to satisfy without obscuring the fact that the mystery is the main plot. It has to make Dave real, without sidestepping into romance or family drama or whatever.)
The mystery was somewhat spoiled for me by the fact that I'm sure someone told me how it works out. Another review or summary, or maybe one of my housemates. Ah, well.
Skinflick (Joseph Hansen)
I can't decide whether to love or hate the way that Dave's life goes on in the background of his cases. I love it, in that his sexuality and his family and his friends are all just a part of it, like he carries that everywhere he goes -- like real people do -- but I hate it, for the way that it means that those stories that I care about because I care about him are just background.
Anyway, I do love the Brandstetter books, but I don't think this one is my favourite. I suppose in some ways the set up was all there, and I could have figured things out, but I found it a bit confusing. There was a lot going on, and a lot of potential suspects, some of whom weren't returned to. Sometimes it's a little implausible how deeply Dave gets involved in things he doesn't really need to do.
I'm pretty used to the writing now: that or it's tightened up. A bit of both, perhaps. It doesn't bother me anymore if he does over-describe still.
Gravedigger (Joseph Hansen)
I feel a little bit like a broken record with Hansen. I've grown to love his style, the descriptiveness, the sound of his prose. Most of it I do read semi-aloud (I whisper), unlike a lot of other stuff I read lately. It takes more time: it's worth taking time over.
I love the way Brandstetter has a life, has family, has people that we care about. I love that Doug doesn't slip right into obscurity because they've broken up: he is there, in the background. I love that the relationships Dave forms -- Cecil, Salazer -- carry through to other books.
Not so fond of the way that all Dave's cases are somehow to do with gay men. On the flipside, glad of the way that he is competent, no matter what he has to deal with, whether it be a crime of passion or a serial-killing cultist madman.
One thing I like -- that others might not -- is that the emotional plot never gets so intense and dramatic that I don't want to read on. When I'm so attached to a character, I get reluctant to keep reading because I don't want anything bad to happen. I like Dave, I sympathise with him, I enjoy his quiet strength. There are moments of high intensity, yeah, but he's wiser than to live his whole life at fever pitch. I really like that.
Nightwork (Joseph Hansen)
Raymond Chandler doesn't give Marlowe much by way of consequences, as far as I can remember. Hansen gives Dave (and his friends and family) plenty. I wasn't sure about the continued inclusion of Cecil, at first: now I am. I care about Cecil, I hurt for him and for Dave because of him. I love Amanda, too. I love how important they are to the plot, that Dave has family and friends and they're impacted by his work -- he's not isolated, and nor is his work.
My only quibble with this book was the wrap-up: we don't get to see if Dave does go up against the polluting companies. Maybe that's one of the things that will continue to the next book, I don't know. But it felt so abrupt -- it wasn't really a resolution, in my opinion.
The Little Dog Laughed (Joseph Hansen)
Dave Brandstetter keeps getting mixed up in bigger and bigger problems and conspiracies, all springing from his usual work. Wow. I kind of want him to go back to the smaller cases -- they were still dangerous, but not as dangerous as this. It's kind of stretching my suspension of disbelief, at this point.
I like Cecil more than Doug, and I just put my finger on why: he's a part of Dave's work as well. He'll help him with cases, he'll come and get him out of trouble if he can, even at the risk of his own life. We see more of him. His relationship with Dave is more satisfying.
I'm hoping to see more of Chrissie after this book, given the development on the very last page.
Early Graves (Joseph Hansen)
The beginning of this book was something of a shock -- I forgot that bad things do happen and have consequences, despite it being one of my favourite things about this series. It did resolve itself, somewhat, but -- ow. Wasn't expecting that, somehow. Just like Dave wasn't, I guess.
The story of this book is another one where Dave gets involved with things that're far from his usual death claims work. Or, well, by now this stuff is usual for him, of course, but it's stuff that he shouldn't have to deal with. He's personally targeted almost from the beginning, and it's all a bit harrowing.
The ending gives me hope.
Obedience (Joseph Hansen)
Oh, Dave, I knew it wouldn't be so easy for you to retire. In this book, he more openly takes up the investigation of a murder, not for an insurance company, but for the public defender of a man accused of murder. The man himself seems less and less important the further and faster the plot moves, honestly: Dave gets himself entangled in a world of Vietnamese businessmen and crooks.
Like Cecil, I find myself wishing that Dave would quit smoking. I do enjoy, though, that for Dave it's a real concern, as it wouldn't be for his other hard-boiled counterparts. I love that he is really getting old and slower and having to worry about it. It makes him so much more real than Marlowe, no matter how slick Raymond Chandler's writing was.
I'm still enjoying the books, but I think I'd almost enjoy them more if we did get to see Dave retiring, settling down, for real.
The Boy Who Was Buried Yesterday (Joseph Hansen)
Dave is getting old, and it's horrible. His friends are dying, things are changing, and he thinks he's getting slow. But he's still going up against White supremacist groups and god knows what, and doing pretty well with it.
I do love the way these books engage not only with LGBT issues but also with issues of race. Maybe it isn't always as sensitive as it could be -- I can't think of a specific example right now, but I know there's been some aspects I didn't like very much -- but it's there. Concern about AIDs, too. Considering the genre, which can be pretty hidebound in some ways, and the close links with Raymond Chandler's work and such, I'm pretty impressed.
I love the end of this book, too -- the engagement with a personal life for Dave that twines in and around his work as a detective, again.
A Country of Old Men (Joseph Hansen)
The last book of the series. There's not quite no way out of it, but it's still a pretty decisive end for a lot of the characters, and maybe for Dave.
You know, I don't really judge these stories anymore on how well the mystery was written. I'm in it for Dave, how good he is, how much he loves the people around him, how much he wants to do the right thing and see the truth told. And for Dave's friends, too.
I feel a little like I'm losing a friend, putting down the book this time. I have no doubt that I'll read this series again. There's a quiet, controlled quality to it -- there isn't the over the top violence and dramatic danger that I found in Raymond Chandler's work -- and that's restful, even as you're reading about people killing other people for insurance money. And the existence of Dave Brandstetter and his friends reminds you, all the time, that good people exist even in all that chaos.
Josh Lanyon's work is all, I'm finding, pretty enjoyable. This is different again to the ones I've read before, this time involving an ex-spy. It was interesting to read this, having read the Adrien English books: the voice of the one who did the hurting, rather than the one who was hurt.
I'm not sure how much I liked Mark. He'd say that he didn't expect much from Stephen, and yet he'd be surprised when Stephen pulled away. He didn't seem to have any idea of the boundaries that I think most people internalise. I think, without much personal experience, that the PTSD Mark has to deal with is reasonably well dealt with, anyway. I liked Stephen, though sometimes he was too perfect.
One thing that bothered me was how very stereotypical the brief portrayal of Lena was. "Motherly black woman" who works as a servant to a white man -- really?
The tension between Mark and Stephen is well done, though, and the action scenes are pretty good.
I Spy Something Wicked (Josh Lanyon)
I Spy Something Wicked is shorter than the first story, and focuses almost entirely on Mark and Stephen's relationship -- yes, it's under stress, and Mark still seems to have PTSD, but they're trying to work things out. Some parts of it are incredibly sweet, and it feels quite real.
I was immensely glad at the end. I was rather worried that Mark hadn't learnt anything last time round.
The Complete Brandstetter (Joseph Hansen)
Although I didn't rate any of the books higher than four stars, as a collection they deserve five stars. There's a whole variety of stories and characters within these pages, all of them well worth spending some time with -- most notably, Brandstetter himself. He's an openly gay detective, and the novels all engage with the issues gay people face, but also with racial issues. It's not always perfect, but it's an honest attempt.
Unlike Chandler's Marlowe, who you may think of at first when you read this, Dave's got a life and a family and friends outside of his life as a private investigator. After a while, you'll probably find yourself reading for that, more than anything else. I certainly did.
Fadeout (Joseph Hansen)
My housemate is using the Brandstetter series in her dissertation on gay crime fiction, and assured me that I'd enjoy the series, that it's good, although heartbreaking at times. That last part came through right away, with the painful death of Rod, Dave's lover, as background.
It reminds me a lot of Chandler, too. Housemate says that's intentional, which I'll have to take on faith, because my edition doesn't have anything by way of introduction. Sometimes it's painfully so, in that Chandler nails it, always, and Hansen nails something that sounds Chandleresque. I assume his voice develops as he writes more about Dave, which will help, but... I love Chandler's imagery, the crisp clarity and difference, which makes every single sentence sound effortless and casual and yet telling and profound. Not a scrap of spare in Chandler's work. In Hansen's work, and probably partly 'cause I'm busy doing a class on microfiction which involves a lot of workshopping, I sometimes wanted to take my red pen to it. That's not to say it's not good. When it doesn't seem, to me, as if it's trying too hard to be Chandler, it works perfectly.
That sounds much more critical -- less like I enjoyed it -- than is actually the case. Fadeout is pretty short and sweet, in comparison to the books I normally read, and I'd have happily sat down and read it in one go. I like the character of Dave Brandstetter. I don't know him well yet, but I think I will. I like that he has a life outside work, which doesn't really overlap with work: Madge, and his mourning for Rod. He's more of a real person than Phillip Marlowe, maybe.
The mystery itself wasn't, for me, the centre of things, though it quickly becomes apparent that that, too, is involved with the issue of homosexuality. I did like the characters and lives we see glimpses of, and I rather hope we'll see more of Doug. The mystery itself, because I didn't focus on it, was a bit of a surprise to me -- not how Dave finds out, or the motive, but exactly who it was.
Death Claims (Joseph Hansen)
Minor spoiler here, not about the identity of the murderer, but about a subplot involving Doug.
The only thing that turns me off Joseph Hansen's writing is the thickness of the description. It's vivid, but it's too vivid: a paragraph worth of setting the scene every single time, adjective piled on adjective. They're good descriptions, and I guess it's all a part of his style, but sometimes it gets in the way.
He is good with characters, though. For all the similarities to Chandler, I like the way he handles characters much, much more. Even the ones you don't see much of, I care about. Peter Oats is absent most of the story, but I care about him, and sometimes when people are suspected, you don't want it to be true. I called it, in this story -- something about the way the lens of the story never swung round to one particular guy who I was ready to have suspicions about.
Didn't call all the twists and turns, though, and there's a lot of stuff in the background to care about, too -- Madge, and Doug, and Doug's mother. I loved the glimpses of Doug and Dave's relationship, loved that Dave made it work out. With the private investigator tropes of being alone against the world -- like Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, since the comparison is an obvious one -- you have to worry that Dave will just let it go, do whatever hurts less, and he doesn't. He chooses people who are alive over the dear departed. I love that.
Troublemaker (Joseph Hansen)
I liked the mystery in this one -- I actually got there pretty quickly, then discarded the thought, only to take it up again later. I only liked a couple of the characters involved, mostly Tom Owens, but because of him I cared about how it all shook out, so there you go.
I have my usual reservations about Hansen's writing, but I'm getting used to it. And it's not bad, anyway: I whisper it to myself, generally, because it sounds good -- I always do that with well-written books, like with Chandler, and not with Agatha Christie. Like that. Anyway, the problem with Hansen's description is that there's so much of it, sometimes it turns meaningless by the end of the paragraph and becomes just sound. Which is a shame, because used a bit more conservatively, it'd be amazing.
I wanted to see more of Doug. I guess Brandstetter's life is always going to come in snatches between the plot, but I do want more of it. I want to see Doug's reaction when Dave gets home after not being able to help Doug because he was too busy minding everyone else's business. I want to know if that's alright with Doug -- and I kinda think/hope it would be.
The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of (Joseph Hansen)
Just once, I'd like to see Brandstetter tackling a case involving straight people. In a way, it's great that there are gay people of all stripes in these books. In another way, it's not like a gay detective has to work with gay people all the time. Not all his cases are going to be about gay people, unless he deliberately only represents gay people, which would be a whole different story.
Still, I love how matter-of-factly gay Dave is, how it's just a part of him. I like the fact that he has a family, a social life, outside of the job. I love him, and I'm getting frustrated by the bite-size snippets of his life because I want more of it.
(If we got more, it might be disappointing. It walks a line, here, in giving us enough to satisfy without obscuring the fact that the mystery is the main plot. It has to make Dave real, without sidestepping into romance or family drama or whatever.)
The mystery was somewhat spoiled for me by the fact that I'm sure someone told me how it works out. Another review or summary, or maybe one of my housemates. Ah, well.
Skinflick (Joseph Hansen)
I can't decide whether to love or hate the way that Dave's life goes on in the background of his cases. I love it, in that his sexuality and his family and his friends are all just a part of it, like he carries that everywhere he goes -- like real people do -- but I hate it, for the way that it means that those stories that I care about because I care about him are just background.
Anyway, I do love the Brandstetter books, but I don't think this one is my favourite. I suppose in some ways the set up was all there, and I could have figured things out, but I found it a bit confusing. There was a lot going on, and a lot of potential suspects, some of whom weren't returned to. Sometimes it's a little implausible how deeply Dave gets involved in things he doesn't really need to do.
I'm pretty used to the writing now: that or it's tightened up. A bit of both, perhaps. It doesn't bother me anymore if he does over-describe still.
Gravedigger (Joseph Hansen)
I feel a little bit like a broken record with Hansen. I've grown to love his style, the descriptiveness, the sound of his prose. Most of it I do read semi-aloud (I whisper), unlike a lot of other stuff I read lately. It takes more time: it's worth taking time over.
I love the way Brandstetter has a life, has family, has people that we care about. I love that Doug doesn't slip right into obscurity because they've broken up: he is there, in the background. I love that the relationships Dave forms -- Cecil, Salazer -- carry through to other books.
Not so fond of the way that all Dave's cases are somehow to do with gay men. On the flipside, glad of the way that he is competent, no matter what he has to deal with, whether it be a crime of passion or a serial-killing cultist madman.
One thing I like -- that others might not -- is that the emotional plot never gets so intense and dramatic that I don't want to read on. When I'm so attached to a character, I get reluctant to keep reading because I don't want anything bad to happen. I like Dave, I sympathise with him, I enjoy his quiet strength. There are moments of high intensity, yeah, but he's wiser than to live his whole life at fever pitch. I really like that.
Nightwork (Joseph Hansen)
Raymond Chandler doesn't give Marlowe much by way of consequences, as far as I can remember. Hansen gives Dave (and his friends and family) plenty. I wasn't sure about the continued inclusion of Cecil, at first: now I am. I care about Cecil, I hurt for him and for Dave because of him. I love Amanda, too. I love how important they are to the plot, that Dave has family and friends and they're impacted by his work -- he's not isolated, and nor is his work.
My only quibble with this book was the wrap-up: we don't get to see if Dave does go up against the polluting companies. Maybe that's one of the things that will continue to the next book, I don't know. But it felt so abrupt -- it wasn't really a resolution, in my opinion.
The Little Dog Laughed (Joseph Hansen)
Dave Brandstetter keeps getting mixed up in bigger and bigger problems and conspiracies, all springing from his usual work. Wow. I kind of want him to go back to the smaller cases -- they were still dangerous, but not as dangerous as this. It's kind of stretching my suspension of disbelief, at this point.
I like Cecil more than Doug, and I just put my finger on why: he's a part of Dave's work as well. He'll help him with cases, he'll come and get him out of trouble if he can, even at the risk of his own life. We see more of him. His relationship with Dave is more satisfying.
I'm hoping to see more of Chrissie after this book, given the development on the very last page.
Early Graves (Joseph Hansen)
The beginning of this book was something of a shock -- I forgot that bad things do happen and have consequences, despite it being one of my favourite things about this series. It did resolve itself, somewhat, but -- ow. Wasn't expecting that, somehow. Just like Dave wasn't, I guess.
The story of this book is another one where Dave gets involved with things that're far from his usual death claims work. Or, well, by now this stuff is usual for him, of course, but it's stuff that he shouldn't have to deal with. He's personally targeted almost from the beginning, and it's all a bit harrowing.
The ending gives me hope.
Obedience (Joseph Hansen)
Oh, Dave, I knew it wouldn't be so easy for you to retire. In this book, he more openly takes up the investigation of a murder, not for an insurance company, but for the public defender of a man accused of murder. The man himself seems less and less important the further and faster the plot moves, honestly: Dave gets himself entangled in a world of Vietnamese businessmen and crooks.
Like Cecil, I find myself wishing that Dave would quit smoking. I do enjoy, though, that for Dave it's a real concern, as it wouldn't be for his other hard-boiled counterparts. I love that he is really getting old and slower and having to worry about it. It makes him so much more real than Marlowe, no matter how slick Raymond Chandler's writing was.
I'm still enjoying the books, but I think I'd almost enjoy them more if we did get to see Dave retiring, settling down, for real.
The Boy Who Was Buried Yesterday (Joseph Hansen)
Dave is getting old, and it's horrible. His friends are dying, things are changing, and he thinks he's getting slow. But he's still going up against White supremacist groups and god knows what, and doing pretty well with it.
I do love the way these books engage not only with LGBT issues but also with issues of race. Maybe it isn't always as sensitive as it could be -- I can't think of a specific example right now, but I know there's been some aspects I didn't like very much -- but it's there. Concern about AIDs, too. Considering the genre, which can be pretty hidebound in some ways, and the close links with Raymond Chandler's work and such, I'm pretty impressed.
I love the end of this book, too -- the engagement with a personal life for Dave that twines in and around his work as a detective, again.
A Country of Old Men (Joseph Hansen)
The last book of the series. There's not quite no way out of it, but it's still a pretty decisive end for a lot of the characters, and maybe for Dave.
You know, I don't really judge these stories anymore on how well the mystery was written. I'm in it for Dave, how good he is, how much he loves the people around him, how much he wants to do the right thing and see the truth told. And for Dave's friends, too.
I feel a little like I'm losing a friend, putting down the book this time. I have no doubt that I'll read this series again. There's a quiet, controlled quality to it -- there isn't the over the top violence and dramatic danger that I found in Raymond Chandler's work -- and that's restful, even as you're reading about people killing other people for insurance money. And the existence of Dave Brandstetter and his friends reminds you, all the time, that good people exist even in all that chaos.
