"Five Decembers" by James Kestrel

Yes, it is one lurid cover, suitable for a noir novel of the 1940s or 1950s.  

But that’s what Five Decembers by James Kestrel is – a noir novel of the 1940s. It’s also a great mystery, winner of the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Novel by the mystery Writers of America. And it’s a flat-out great story, escaping the mystery genre and taking the reader to the real-life days of World War II in the Pacific.

 

Joe McGrady is a police detective in Honolulu. It’s late November 1941, right before Thanksgiving. Joe is a military veteran and not your “come-up-through-the-department’ policeman. He doesn’t like how some cops get confessions, but he keeps his head down.

 

He’s called to a murder, a particularly gruesome one involving a college student and a young woman. Both have been tortured before being killed. The college student turns out to be the nephew of the commanding admiral at Honolulu. The girl is of Japanese heritage. How they came together, and how they managed to get tortured and killed, is a mystery. 

 

Kames Kestrel

Joe is given the case, with the blessing of the admiral, who wants to know who killed his nephew. He also wants the killer or killers brought to justice, inside or outside a courtroom. Joe’s commanding officer at the police department would just as soon seen the case filed away. But because of the pressure from the admiral, and clues left behind by one of the killers, Joe begins a journey, island hopping across the western Pacific to track the killer. He ends up in Hong Kong, and in a jail, no less, on Dec, 8, 1941, which across the International Date Line is Dec. 7, 1941 in Hawaii. Hong Kong is under siege by the Japanese. And soon Joe finds himself on a slow boat – bound for Tokyo.

 

It's the kind of story that’s difficult to put down, for things like sleep and eating. Joe will return to Honolulu at war’s end, but what happens in between makes him determined to solve his case. And for good measure, Kestrel throws in two possible love stories. 

 

James Kestrel is the pen name for author Jonathan Moore. He’s led a rather eclectic professional life – bar owner, criminal defense investigator, and now an attorney practicing throughout the Pacific. He’s lived in Taiwan, New Orleans, and West Texas, and currently lives in Volcano, on the big island of Hawaii. 

 

If you’re looking for an exciting, riveting, noir novel about World War II, read Five Decembers, lurid cover and all. Even if you’re not, read it anyway. It’s that good of a story.