Five Decembers

Product Information

To quote Nolan's review in the WSJ: "Lyrical, violent, intelligent, breathtaking: this is an unforgettable book. I have tried hard not to spoil for anyone who wishes to read the novel (and you should, it’s wonderful), but my poor efforts did not encompass its sweep, its thematic depth, its brilliant characterization, its matter-of-fact prose that says so much with so little, or its perfectly paced, perfectly structured movements to a magnificent dénouement, which to any romance reader, may be one of the most heart-wrenching “grovels” you’ll ever read. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever. There are significant challenges inherent in plunging your reader into the past and orienting them accurately to the environment. I knew then that I trusted Kestrel’s eye and could rely on him to bring alive other places we were to visit.

Read this book for its palpitating story, its perfect emotional and physical detailing and, most of all, for its unforgettable conjuring of a steamy quicksilver world that will be new to almost every reader. Police investigation/crime novel, combined with WWII story, combined with love, loss and grief and redemption is how I would categorize this one. The author is updating the genre, but not reinventing it -- no literary tricks here, just economical relaying of a mind-bending and ultimately entertaining plot.I don't remember another book I've read in years that had the powerful emotional impact this one has. My family moved to Hawaii in 1957 and there were still a lot of traces of pre-WWII Honolulu to be found. No book that I was reading during that time held my interest and I was getting more and more frustrated! It’s a fantastic crime novel that takes the classic tale of a determined detective hunting a killer and turns it into the tragedy of one man who gets caught up in epic historical events.

Raymond Chandler survived the “war to end all wars” in the trenches of France with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Not only are these vignettes effective in providing the appropriate sense of desperation and fear of firebomb raids and death, they also support the very noirish struggle the central characters suffer with questions of futility and fatalism. Political pressure mounts when one of the carved-up victims is identified as the missing nephew of a Navy admiral. This stellar Wartime Noir from James Kestrel packs an emotional punch that left me reeling, it is powerful, profound and moving, whilst defying genre classification.Have you ever enjoyed a book so much that you started reading slower because you didn't want it to end? I usually ask for more stories about a character after finishing a book I enjoyed but this time I feel the main character Joe McGrady has gone through so much in his mission to bring this case to an end. McGrady is assigned a partner in Fred Ball, who's never detained a suspect he couldn't beat an answer out of, and following a lead to Guam, assures his lovely girlfriend Molly that he'll be home soon. An additional suspect emerges and McGrady is sent to follow them across several Pacific islands, finally landing in Hong Kong as the Japanese initiate their multi-pronged attacks which draw the rest of the world into World War II. War, imprisonment, torture, romance, foreign language and culture are all explored with genuine feeling.

There’s a lot of great procedural bits about trying to track down a killer in the era before computer databases and modern forensics. It goes places I could never have guessed it would; it makes you fear for the main character's fate, and grieve with him, and hope with him, in ways that are rare indeed.

As another victim with a similar MO is discovered, Joe finds himself sent to hunt the killer, ending up in British ruled Hong Kong.