Fadeout - Joseph Hansen

''After forty years, Hammett has a worthy successor'' The TimesRadio personality Fox Olsen seemed to have it all: devoted wife, adoring fans, perfect life. When his car is found crashed in a dry river bed, all of California mourns. But there is no body...Insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter is hired to dig a little deeper. And the more he looks into Fox Olsen''s life, the more it seems as if he had good reason to disappear. Fadeout is the first novel starring Dave Brandstetter - one of the best fictional PIs in the business, and one of the first ever gay ones. Joseph Hansen''s groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald.