Fadeout is the first of Joseph Hansen's twelve classic mysteries featuring rugged Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who is contentedly gay. When entertainer Fox Olson's car plunges off a bridge in a storm, a death claim is filed, but where is Olson's body? As Brandstetter questions family, fans, and detractors, he grows certain Olson is still alive and that Dave must find him before the would-be killer does. Suspenseful and wry, shrewd and deeply felt, Fadeout remains as fresh today as when it startled readers more than thirty years ago.

Joseph Hansen (1923–2004) was the author of more than twenty-five novels and a renowned short story writer. The winner of the 1992 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, Hansen was also the author of A Smile in his Lifetime, Living Upstairs, Job's Year, and Bohannon's Country.