SHOTGUN BLAST FROM THE PAST: JOSEPH HANSEN'S SKINFLICK

Skinflick is the fifth book in Joseph Hansen's Dave Brandstetter series. Considered to be the first gay private detective, we find the character at a transitional point point in his life as a case tosses him into the sleazy Los Angeles of the seventies. The results are all the elements of what made this a great series with some fresh touches.

Due to the death of his father who ran and owned most of The Medallion Company, Brandstetter sets out to operate a a freelance investigator for insurance companies. He catches a job involving the murder of Geralds Dawson, a right-wing evangelical. The main suspect is Lon Tooker, the adult bookstore owner he was in a fued with. Some of the evidence doesn't jibe with Dave and learning Dawson's partner in film equipment rental was doing business with a low budget porn production company sends him into the dult film scene operating in a Sunset Strip culture suffering a seventies hangover from the sixties, where the key to everything could be a yiung missing girl who Brandstetter hopes isn't murdered herself.

Hansen also weaves in Brandstetter's personal life that never overwhelms the private eye story. He faces the change and void from his father's death. Ironically, this the he book where you get the largest sense of their relationship, even though he appeared in previous installments. It leads to a bittersweet reunion Dave has with the one stepmother her liked. It also creates a complexity in the break up with a boyfriend that hasn't completely dissolved. The private eye novel often carries an inherent sense of loneliness. and Hansen always taps into this with a man in a society and time that won't allow him to completely express who he is.

Skinflick has the self assuredness of a book in a series that has proven itself, knowing it's strengths in a way to try a couple new things. This is the first time Branstetter doesn't have a case that plays directly into issues of the gay community. Hs depiction of the porn industry is pretty non-judgemental, though he he uses at as one of the aspects of how an older generation preys on a younger. Hansen uses his sensibilities as a poet to to not only deliver meaning between the lines, but emotion. Much like Dave Branstetter, himself, Skinflick may not wear its heart on its sleeve, but that doesn't mean you don't feel it deeply.