Tangled Web UK Review October 2000
Gravedigger by
Joseph Hansen
pbk out August 00
(No Exit Press)
at £4.99
Charles Westover, a disbarred lawyer, alleges that his runaway teenage daughter, Serenity, has been murdered by a sex-cult guru, and files an insurance claim. Then he disappears. Investigator Dave Brandsetter has to track Westover down and try to establish if his claim is genuine. But nothing is simple in the Westover case; son Lyle goes missing too, mother Anna is sure that Serenity is still alive and although bodies have been found at the cult’s headquarters forensic evidence fails to establish whether Serenity is among them.
Brandsetter, assisted by his young lover Cecil, tries to make sense of the web of deceit; tracking down neighbours, friends and family around the fancy seaside suburbs, mountain retreats, scrubby desert towns and wild canyons of California. The puzzle steadily becomes more complex and more deadly.
Hansen is a skilful storyteller. His writing is finely tuned and deceptively simple with a satisfying emotional depth. The varied locations and the Californian winter weather are vividly depicted. This is the seventh book to feature Dave Brandsetter, a compelling creation, a private eye with guts and soul, relentless in his determination to pursue the case and in his efforts to be true to himself and to act with honour and honesty in his personal life.
Manchester Evening News 29/09/00
(
Cath Staincliffe
- Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester)
