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seamuscoon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
what a wonderful, wonderful series, and criminally unknown
That being said, I feel like this one is a little weaker than the rest of the series. The mystery is kind of all over the place, though I appreciate the parallels it’s drawing between the vulnerabilities of the young vs disabled/elderly people
That being said, I feel like this one is a little weaker than the rest of the series. The mystery is kind of all over the place, though I appreciate the parallels it’s drawing between the vulnerabilities of the young vs disabled/elderly people
henrismum's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.25
Audiobook (All of my entries on The Story Graph are audiobooks.)
#12 in series (I started reading this series on 4/6/22 and I have been committed to this series since 8/4/22. )
Will I read other installments?Probably Not Maybe Definitely This was the last of the Dave Brandstetter books. It was published over thirty years ago. Joseph Hansen has been dead since 2004. I am sad the series is over. I enjoyed the story of Brandstetter's life as much as I liked the mysteries. Hansen wrote with tenderness.
I was afraid to end the book.
The reader doesn't know for sure what happens to Brandstetter. He seems to suffer a heart attack, which was brewing throughout the story. The paramedics were called, but when Brandstetter awakens in darkness, the reader doesn't know if it's death. It could be another chance, a last warning to Brandstetter. Brandstetter spent some of the novel righting wrongs. The reader learns about some characters from other books, one of whom is dying from AIDS. There is only a reference to Brandstetter's old lover, Doug, but the author doesn't tell us if he's healthy or happy. I would have liked to have known.
The reader doesn't know if Brandstetter set out to care for Cecil in his will, although it seems likely. Does it matter? This was a long time ago and Cecil would probably be dead now anyway. Goodbye Dave. Thanks for the stories.
Comparison to others in series: Not as good About the same Better
The narrator was Keith Szarabajka. He read it well.
Source: New York Public Library
#12 in series (I started reading this series on 4/6/22 and I have been committed to this series since 8/4/22. )
Will I read other installments?
I was afraid to end the book.
The reader doesn't know if Brandstetter set out to care for Cecil in his will, although it seems likely. Does it matter? This was a long time ago and Cecil would probably be dead now anyway. Goodbye Dave. Thanks for the stories.
Comparison to others in series: Not as good About the same Better
The narrator was Keith Szarabajka. He read it well.
Source: New York Public Library
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Murder, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Classism, Death, and Grief
claudia_is_reading's review against another edition
5.0
And we have arrived at the end. And it was a fitting, honest end to a truly extraordinary series.
We knew Dave as a middle-aged man, and at the beginning of this one he is in his 70s and he's not well. And yet, even when Cecil begs him not to get involved in another case, he can't resist the lure brought by a little kid who swears he managed to escape from his kidnapper, who took him after he witnesses how her commited murder.
There is also the story of an old friend of Dave, a writer named Jack Helmers, whose last, as yet unpublished last book, is creating some stir between old friends. The novel is autobiographical and it seems that there are a lot of people nervous about what it could reveal of their own lives.
And yet... even when the mysteries are good and really enthralling, the story mostly deals with Dave's evidently failing health and, as we are closing to the end we want to stop. Because we know what it's coming :(
But when the book ends, yes, sure, there is a sense of sadness. But mostly, I'm grateful. Dave Brandstetter is such a great character: honest and big-hearted, dedicated to bringing justice and unable to say no to a mystery.
As Hansen says:
I'm happy that I found these books and I know I'll revisit them frequently.
We knew Dave as a middle-aged man, and at the beginning of this one he is in his 70s and he's not well. And yet, even when Cecil begs him not to get involved in another case, he can't resist the lure brought by a little kid who swears he managed to escape from his kidnapper, who took him after he witnesses how her commited murder.
There is also the story of an old friend of Dave, a writer named Jack Helmers, whose last, as yet unpublished last book, is creating some stir between old friends. The novel is autobiographical and it seems that there are a lot of people nervous about what it could reveal of their own lives.
And yet... even when the mysteries are good and really enthralling, the story mostly deals with Dave's evidently failing health and, as we are closing to the end we want to stop. Because we know what it's coming :(
But when the book ends, yes, sure, there is a sense of sadness. But mostly, I'm grateful. Dave Brandstetter is such a great character: honest and big-hearted, dedicated to bringing justice and unable to say no to a mystery.
As Hansen says:
My joke was to take the true hard-boiled character in an American fiction tradition and make him homosexual. He was going to be a nice man, a good man, and he was going to do his job well."
I'm happy that I found these books and I know I'll revisit them frequently.
vespers9's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kaje_harper's review against another edition
5.0
The last book in the series, so named from the start. Dave isn't that old yet, but he's finding himself tiring more easily, and his mood is frequently melancholy. Despite Cecil still in his life, he seems to feel that he has outlived his span. A couple of cases come his way via old friends - one the case of a small boy kidnapped after witnessing a murder, the other a more benign issue of what an old writer friend is likely to reveal of their shared youth, and that of friends with more at stake, in an unpublished memoir.
Dave investigates with his usual acuity and compassion. Cecil's frustration at his unwillingness to take care of himself better is palpable. I wished he would too. There are few men with more integrity, compassion and fairness than Dave, for all his cool exterior. But as the cases wound their convoluted way forward, I could only savor this last look at a man I'd come to really care about, in Dave Brandstetter's last case.
Dave investigates with his usual acuity and compassion. Cecil's frustration at his unwillingness to take care of himself better is palpable. I wished he would too. There are few men with more integrity, compassion and fairness than Dave, for all his cool exterior. But as the cases wound their convoluted way forward, I could only savor this last look at a man I'd come to really care about, in Dave Brandstetter's last case.
sylvia_is_reading's review
5.0
I'm so sorry I've read the last Brandstetter but this ending seemed inevitable. I'll miss Dave.
paperback's review against another edition
5.0
And thus ends my reread of the Dave Brandsetter mysteries. That ending!
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