Detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a murder in Hawaii. He tracks the suspect to Hong Kong, when suddenly, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, pulling the USA into WWII. Shortly after, the Japanese take over Hong Kong and arrest Joe, and the story follows his life through the war, and his attempt to solve the original crime after the war. This book has exceptionally strong reviews on GoodReads, but for me, it felt like unremarkable noir fiction.
I suppose what makes the book unique is that it mixes the noir crime story with a World War II story. There’s also some romance, but that’s pretty standard for noir. The mystery and detective work are OK, but nothing special. The same goes for the action and the dialog. The characters all feel like noir tropes: the tough, I’ll-do-it-my-way, morally-strong-despite-all-the-corruption noir detective, the corrupt authorities all around the detective, the mysterious and exotic woman whose primary role is to be a love interest for the detective, and so on. You can almost hear the cheesy gruff voice-overs while the detective stares through his venetian blinds.
It’s not a bad book, but given the ratings, I was expecting something exceptional, and this book didn’t quite get there for me.
