The Little Dog Laughed: A Dave Brandstetter Mystery

This is the eighth novel by Joseph Hansen (Death Claims featuring independently wealthy, cultivated, fearlessand gayinsurance claims-death investigator Dave Brandstetter. His private life is low key and strictly background, and the intricate story line is what keeps the reader engrossed. When the body of Adam Streeter, a prominent journalist, is found by his blind, 17-year-old daughter Chrissie, suicide is at first suspected and then ruled out, but Brandstetter tenaciously follows the case. Utilizing a network of knowledgeable but offbeat friends, Brandstetter discovers that Streeter was about to disclose the whereabouts of the missing Interior Minister of the Central American country Los Inocente, General Cortez-Ortiz, a man so reknowned for his savagery that his nickname is El Carnicero, the Butcher. As Brandstetter probes deeper into the case, uncovering conspiracies and fraud in high places, he awakens powerful enemies and becomes the hunted rather than the hunter. Set in Southern California, the stylish and absorbing novel is supported by a cast of intelligent, spunky secondary characters. Brandstetter defies advice to drop the case and persists in his hunt for Streeter's killer, leading not only to a solution to the murder, but to an explosive and highly satisfying finale. (November)