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I couldn't resist stopping by the LFL in hopes of retrieving the "Dave Brandstetter" books; there's an "unexpectedly good reads" bookbox coming my way and these might be candidates.

Hansen's "Dave Brandstetter" series is a marvelously well-written, noir-ish detective series. Brandstetter is an insurance investigator, and gay. This first book in the series introduces him as he's trying to recover from the loss of his life-partner Rod Fleming, who is easily the best-realized fictional character that I know of who exists only in memories - he's been dead six months as the first book begins, yet Dave's thoughts turn to him often, trying to recall the good times and erase the painful ones, and before long the reader feels as if they know him too. [As Dave's a very stoic, masculine fellow, and as Rod was - in Dave's words - quite nelly, they often rubbed each other the wrong way; among Dave's regrets are the times he was short-tempered about Rod's traits, acknowledging only now that Rod was much more patient with Dave's. But their love story is charming; they met when Dave was shopping for a bed for his new house, and fell in love on the spot. "When he'd seen Rod first, talked to him first, heart running quick as a watch, mouth dry, he had told himself This will be good for exactly one sweet night. The kid was feminine. A flit. Nobody he could live with. A decorator, for Christ sake! One cut above a hairdresser... But Christmas Eve, lying naked and warm against Rod in that preposterous bed, both of them with the smell of paint in their hair that no amount of showering would take out, listening to the church bells off across the rainy midnight city, he understood that he had been wrong. No, it hadn't gone on long yet. Only two weeks. But he knew, they both knew, it was forever..."]

Hansen writes crisp, spare prose, interesting mysteries, and fascinating characters. I recommend the series highly.

See also Death Claims.

I'm adding this to the Surprisingly Good bookbox (bookbox journal here). I loved it back when I first read it, and was pleased to find another copy to share.

*** Released for the 2020 One Word Title challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2020 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***

Taken from the Surprisingly Good Books box.