On the Other Hand, Death is the latest entertaining and suspenseful installment in here!TV’s films based on author Richard Stevenson’s long-running series of mystery books featuring Donald Strachey, a gay private investigator based in Albany, New York.

Even before the opening credits roll, Strachey (Chad Allen) finds himself surrounded by cops with guns drawn when the shadowy female he’s tracking through the city’s gritty back streets turns out be an officer of the Albany Police Department. Under arrest, he explains that her husband hired him to follow her to see if she was having an affair. The only problem is, she isn’t married. To save his hide, Strachey has to figure out who the so-called husband really is and why he hired him to tail a cop.

He gets thrown off course when a small-town lesbian couple (Margot Kidder and Gabrielle Rose) becomes a target of homophobic vandalism and threats. Strachey can’t resist volunteering to help track down the perpetrators, even as he continues his search for his phantom client. Seeking both of them at once proves to be tough, but as the violence escalates, his twin investigations start to seem suspiciously like one and the same case.

Director Ron Oliver maintains a satisfyingly noirish mood as Strachey fends off a pass from a naked hunk, takes abuse from both the local homophobes and the cops and finally nabs his prey.