I received my copy of the forthcoming HARD CASE👑🔫CRIME book Five Decembers, which is slated for release this October 19th, on 3/30/21. At 9:07 am. Never mind how, I don't want you getting jealous. Let's just say that I have friends in hard places. And despite the fact that I have a lot on my reading plate, I knocked back this 400+ page novel in 7 days...and I found it pretty compelling stuff.
For one thing, it's not your typical hard boiled crime book. Not that there's anything wrong with that. (In fact, far from it as far as I'm concerned.) Across the course of three Parts, we move from a pretty straightforward detective story to a historical fiction narrative to a love story which turns back into a detective novel. And it works. It adds depth and dimension to the story, which also allows the characters to solidify and attain that precious third dimension that is often not found in genre fiction.
As for the historical aspect, we're talking about a span of time from December 7, 1941 to December 31, 1945 (hence five Decembers), so of course we're talking about World War II. Well...it just so happens that I've been pretty immersed in the World War II era of late. It started with my reading of Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad, continued through his Life and Fate, and then went straight into the 6 volume The Second World War by Winston Churchill, the 4th volume of which I'm about to finish. Because of those readings, my movie watching also took a hard right into World War II era territory, so I gobbled up part of the Russian series based on Life and Fate, Enemy at the Gates, Dunkirk, The Man Who Never Was, Shadow in the Cloud, Pearl Harbor, Good Times Wonderful Times, Greyhound, In Harm's Way, and Midway.
So when I begin to read Five Decembers, I had to wonder if I wouldn't be besieged by historical errors that I might not otherwise have noticed. I suppose that doesn't matter a whole lot in the larger picture of appreciating a work of fiction, but I have to confess that it does matter quite a bit to me. When I encounter errors of fact, typos and grammatical errors, etc., it throws me out of the fictional dream at 62 mph, and as it goes on it becomes harder and harder to stand up, dust myself off, and jump aboard the now stalled car. In fact, there are times when I just have to give up on a book because of these things. But that didn't happen once in Five Decembers. I can only conclude that this so-called James Kestrel (it's a pseudonym) researched the shit out of this book. Unless s/he's 96 years old and lived through it...and kept copious notes.
All of which is to say that the story-telling is solid.
There were a few things that did throw me off for a minute or two, though. I mention them only because if they throw you off, I am hoping that they don't throw you out of the novel, because then you'd miss a good thing.
First, a minor thing. There were a few words and phrases which stopped me cold. One, there's a character whose last name is Beamer. Let me just say that there are a lot of names that don't make me think about a BMW, and I wish "James Kestrel" had chosen one of them. Also, there are several occurrences of this: "Beamer hung back and let McGrady badge her." I'm sure (given the above) that this term is historically accurate, but it still disrupted the narrative for me. I had to stop, think about it, wonder why that choice, and then get back on board. The same goes for references to a "reefer"--of which there are several. Maybe it's just my age, but a reefer is not slang for a refrigerator, it's slang for a marijuana cigarette. So I had to go through that a few times.
Second, a much bigger thing. I'm going to avoid spoilers here, but at around the 2/3rds point of the book, there are two coincidences which went beyond what I'm willing to accept as reasonable. Both had to do with characters who appear in certain plot-convenient places. And the thing is that neither of those coincidences were necessary to the plot of the story. I'm glad to say that neither of these made me want to stop reading the novel...but they both made me put it down and shake my head a little bit. If you find yourself in my shoes, I'd encourage you to get back to it. The payoff is worth it.
I usually find that if I like a book a lot, there are lines which I want to keep hold of. Here are a few from Five Decembers:
"McGrady had one of those faces. Everything squared off and somehow unfinished, as though his sculptor had snapped a chisel on unexpectedly hard stone."
Now that's a description, isn't it?
Also, I wasn't really sure what to think of McGrady until this: "McGrady saw two pairs of shoes outside the door. He leaned against the porch rail, and took off his shoe."
Keep in mind that this is an American fellow we're talking about here. And in the 1940s.
"Everything that mattered was already past."
Oh. That one really hurt. Been there.
Okay, don't want to spoil anything, so enough of the quotes.
And just one more thing...reference sex scenes. "James Kestrel" is one of the most discreet writers EVer when it comes to sex scenes. For one thing, there are only two. And I admired that. So many times lead male characters are depicted as lotharios...or, even worse, as irresistible to women. I very much liked the fact that we had a lead character who didn't want to (and didn't) have sex with a dozen women. Also, when these scenes did occur, we got enough detail to know what was happening, but not so much that it felt prurient.
All in all...hats off to James Kestrel. I hope that her/his identity is revealed at some point, as I would certainly like to read more from this writer.
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