One of the best hardboiled mysteries I've read in years, and an epic war story and love story to boot. Not just any murder, but one our protagonist realizes changed the entire course of history while he was marooned, including his life and the lives of those nearest to him: the girlfriend who gave him up for dead, and the daughter of the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose father springs McGrady from a prison camp for his help finding the men who murdered his niece, hiding him in Tokyo until the conclusion of the war. The end of the war allows for him to complete his investigation which takes him again back and forth across the Pacific. Time goes by, blah, blah, blah and then McGrady, aided by Kansei Takahashi (a Japanese official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) escapes prison; only to live like Julian Assange….

Believe me, it gets bleak and twisted, and I can see why Hard Case Crime was excited to add this book to their noir collection. While relying on actual world events as a catalyst can make the story feel more real, those not familiar with the period may not fully appreciate the magnitude of the circumstances. But despite the environment, Kestrel finds ways to slow down the action to create brief moments of levity and serenity. There are only two things I didn’t like, but they greatly interfered with my enjoyment of the story.Arriving in early December 1941, Joe’s boots are barely on the ground before he’s accused of a crime he didn’t commit and thrown in the slammer. 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).

Another commenter wrote positively about this year’s Edgar winner, so I’d be keen to read that one too.Closing in on a suspect in Hong Kong, McGrady is caught in the city on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacks mainland China and takes over. 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. But I was surprised nonetheless when Hard Case Crime’s publisher Charles Ardai invited me to preview an upcoming release-Five Decembers by James Kestrel. In an absolutely breathtaking exciting thriller scheduled for an October 2021 release, James Kestrel (a pseudonym for a current author) offers us in one fell swoop a Hardboiled mystery, a historical war story, a star-crossed romance, and just an endless adventure that you never want to end. The tone is in the same kind of terrain as Chandler, with an economy of prose and a propulsive sense of momentum.