Obedience

By Joseph Hansen

Book Overview

The death of a Vietnamese immigrant brings former death claims investigator Dave Brandstetter out of retirement.

As an insurance investigator, Dave Brandstetter built a reputation unraveling suspicious deaths. Now, well into middle age, he has decided to retire for the sake of Cecil, the young TV reporter who loves and cherishes him, and has too often risked his own life for Dave's work. But retirement does not come easily.

Dave never did it for the money. He always had that. Nor did he tirelessly work cases in hopes of chasing renown. It was always the pursuit of the truth that drove Dave. He enjoyed the truth's habit of coming into direct conflict with bigotry, allowing him to surprise the small-minded along the way.

It doesn't take much arm twisting, then, to get Dave back in the saddle when an old friend in the public defender's office asks him to help Andy Flanagan, a shiftless young man accused of murdering a Vietnamese businessman to defend the Old Fleet -- a shantytown of houseboats that has been earmarked for development. Beneath the surface of this oil-slicked slum lurks an international conspiracy so appalling that Dave will regret postponing his retirement.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1681990652
• ISBN13: 9781681990651
• Release Date: December 2023
• Publisher: Soho Syndicate
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

No 10 of the Brandstetter mysteries

When Mr Le, the Vietnamese owner of a rundown harbour complex is found dead the police arrest the self appointed spokesman for the resident houseboat owners. He had an appointment with Mr Le in a bid to dissuade him from selling the harbour to developers and so making the residents homeless. Into his sixties and retired, the still trim and dapper Dave Brandstetter, private investigator an insurance claims investigator, now famous and acknowledged the best in the business, is persuaded to look into the case by the local Public Defender to prove the imprisoned suspect's innocence. While reluctant to take on the assignment, he is intrigued, as much because his lover, the black twenty five year old tall, slim and good looking Cecil Harris, TV reporter, is covering the harbour development story. Dave soon finds himself involved in much more than a single murder investigation. As he starts asking questions he discovers more potential murders, and more happen while he investigates, he suspects a drug smuggling connection along with double-dealing employees and officials. But the powerful Vietnamese community makes his investigation not only difficult but extremely dangerous. Obedience, the tenth of the Brandstetter mysteries is yet another complex, inventive and unpredictable story, plenty of detail, interesting characters, including a young black entertainer who nearly has Cecil face down in a bunk, and the occasional link to past investigations. But above all it is Dave and Cecil, and their mutually devotion, that now makes these stories so appealing.