A vicious murderer is targeting gay men in Los Angeles, and it isn't long before Dave Brandstetter finds himself in the killer's pathDave Brandstetter's afternoon does not begin well: His ex-boyfriend picks him up at the airport, and the ride home—in bumper-to-bumper Los Angeles traffic—is one long argument between them. The insurance investigator's day gets worse when he finds a man—bloody, rain-soaked, and ice cold—lying on his porch, killed by a stab wound while Dave was out of town. There is a serial killer loose in Los Angeles, and this man is his sixth victim. Like the others, he had already been marked for death—by the unforgiving plague known as AIDS. Someone is targeting sick men in the city, and Dave's search for the killer leads him into the dark side of gay Los Angeles, where death comes without warning, and life is a fearful dream.  Early Graves is book nine in the Dave Brandstetter Mystery series, which also includes Troublemaker and The Man Everybody Was Afraid Of.