Five Decembers

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Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice by Ellen McGarrahan (Penguin Random House – Random House) Over the course of these years, Joe has to come to terms with who he is and what he is capable of. What is a man when he is floating without a life preserver bereft of all that grounds him in this world? War, imprisonment, torture, romance…The novel has an almost operatic symmetry, and Kestrel turns a beautiful phrase.”– The New York Times, Best Mystery Novels of 2021

It is November, 1941, and Honolulu detective Joe McGrady is about to have a drink after work when he is interrupted by a phone call from his captain, who assigns the rookie detective a brutal homicide. So begins James Kestrel’s novel, firmly grounded in the style and tropes of noir. One of the murder victims, butchered and strung up by his ankles, turns out to be the nephew of a Navy admiral, who exerts political pressure on the Honolulu PD to apprehend the murderer. But the lone suspect, using a fake passport, has fled Hawaii by plane for Hong Kong. Undeterred, McGrady boards a plane on December 1, 1941, not knowing that a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor. McGrady is kind of like a pit bull: Really great when he’s on your side, but for God’s sake, don’t break into his house.”I was completely blown away by Five Decembers. It is one of best novels I have read about the twilight days of empire, its protagonist getting caught up in the maelstrom of the British, Japanese and European empires dragging themselves into oblivion. ”

Crisp, vivid writing—not a word is wasted...as satisfying as it is deeply unsettling...Highly recommended."

Five Decembers

December 1941. 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. Because the trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves; and though the U.S. doesn't know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor. The author's note at the end suggests that there were at least 60,000 words cut out from the final draft. I wonder whether they were important to the plot, or that maybe they should've cut even more out of the final draft... Five Decembers’ is a police procedural, a war story, a cultural history, a thriller, a romance, a tourist’s guide to Honolulu. It’s everything. It’s too much. But so what? This book is awesome. So’s the writing. Kestrel’s lean prose and cinematic eye makes an impossible story seem probable, even likely.”– Expressed McGrady is arrested on trumped up charges in Hong Kong and shipped off to Tokyo, Japan. Fortuitously, McGrady is brought to the uncle of the slain woman, a Japanese official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The uncle and daughter, Kansei and Sachi Takahashi, provide a safe haven for McGrady for the duration of the war. With the end of WWII though, McGrady is determined to find the butcher who killed Kensei’s niece and the Admiral’s nephew. Kestrel’s expertly clipped descriptive passages and dialogue bring his spacious canvas into razor-sharp focus.

December 1941. 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. Because the trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves; and though the U.S. doesn’t know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor. There are some convenient coincidences that help to drive the plot forward, but overall I was quite impressed with the authentic feel of this first novel which includes espionage related twists, surprise betrayals, hard-boiled action and a sympathetic investigator drawing you along in an epic historical fiction. This has been my favourite in the several 2022 Edgar Award nominees that I've read to date. There are only two things I didn’t like, but they greatly interfered with my enjoyment of the story. The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History by Margalit Fox (Random House Publishing Group – Random House)

James Kestrel

Five Decembers is a masterpiece. You'll stay up all night with this one. It’s unique and it’s terrific." – I absolutely loved this book and I truly cannot wait for the world to read it this fall when it hits bookstores. James Kestrel’s FIVE DECEMBERS is an emotionally-charged crime novel shaped by the tragic years of a world at war, a story that is relentlessly hopeful in the face of unrequited devotion and doomed love.