Living Upstairs: 2a Novel

Author of 25 novels, including the Dave Brandstetter mysteries, and winner of the 1992 lifetime achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America, Hansen here offers an affecting, atmospheric coming-of-age tale set in the seedy bohemian enclaves of WW II Los Angeles. Twenty-year-old Nathan Reed is struggling to make ends meet while he finishes his first novel. His relationship with Hoyt Stubblefield, a painter some years his senior, is clouded by Hoyt's mysterious disappearances. Then an FBI agent hints that there is more to his lover than Nathan knows. Hoyt has ties to the Communist Party and seems somehow involved with the murder of fellow radical Eva Schaffer. Since Hoyt will not discuss his past, Nathan decides to investigate on his own, an undertaking encouraged by Steve, Eva's handsome young G.I. son, who is (incidentally) attracted to Nathan. A host of subsidiary characters (an alcoholic writer working for the film studios, a failed playwright hustling for writing gigs, a family retired from the circus) round out the tale, making it reminiscent of Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby stories or a Nathanael West novella. The plot moves at a leisurely pace, and there's little overt sex. A surprise ending wraps up this gentle and melancholy coming-out tale. (Sept.)