McGrady’s character was easy to route for as were the other people where were important to him (I am being vague on purpose so that you can get to know everyone on your own). To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The two detectives soon realise that the killer they are hunting has already left the Island, headed for Hong Kong.

Kestrel drops a few well-placed ominous hints that foreshadow that the whole world is about to go sideways even as Joe is hoping to get the case wrapped up in time to spend a romantic Christmas with Molly. Full disclosure—I am a huge fan of the Hard Case Crime line of books—I’ve read all of them from day one.On a more somber note–yes, I knew, in a vague way, about the brothels in Chinatown and the set up with the military. Five Decembers by James Kestrel certainly doesn't disappoint, it's part hard-hitting crime thriller,part war story, part love story , a tale of obsession, retribution and most importantly a fantastic read. I went into the reading blind, unaware of when it was written or takes place, and was rewarded with one surprise after another. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Fortuitously, McGrady is brought to the uncle of the slain woman, a Japanese official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The historical time period, the setting takes on its own character with equal importance to the main character. Police investigation/crime novel, combined with WWII story, combined with love, loss and grief and redemption is how I would categorize this one. Of course, history tells us that by the 7th, the US is attacked by Japan and all hell breaks loose in the Pacific.

Yes, the narrative “movements”, as I went on and on about in my review, were like sea-waves, sometimes crashing as in the opening, or like the third, slow and meditative.

James Kestrel's ambitious debut Five Decembers definitely earns it though with a sweeping tale that takes you from pre-Pearl Harbor Dec. It’s never easy to challenge the expectations of a beloved genre successfully, but Kestrel has done just that, growing an adventure story far beyond the expectations of a noir murder mystery. Short staffed due to Thanksgiving, bachelor McGrady is assigned his first homicide, a dead body on the land of a dairy farmer.I did feel like at the end of the day there was not much there there with Joe, he is wholly in service to the plot, it doesn't feel like he existed before the novel or that he'll continue existing afterwards. Yes, you've read tales with an ex-military man turned tough detective before, but not one like Honolulu Detective Joe McGrady.

Kestrel seems to have anticipated this by including brief detours in time and point of view to add historical context about the offensive campaigns that loom over the plot. Part of his investigation takes him away from Honolulu and the girlfriend he has fallen in love with.The covers for “hard case crime” books is what actually draws me to them since the covers are a throwback to the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and I’m a great fan of those time periods. At the end of the war back in Honolulu and flush with back pay McGrady makes sure he is dismissed from the police and heads back to Hong Kong to take up the threads of the investigation and finds his prey with remarkable ease, gun fire results.