Edgar Award Best Novel Winner
Five Decembers
by James Kestrel
Summary
In 1941, Honolulu detective Joe McGrady chases a brutal double murder that leads him across the Pacific just as war with Japan erupts, stranding him far from home. What begins as a procedural becomes a sweeping wartime odyssey of captivity, love, and endurance spanning several years and continents. Kestrel fuses noir detection with historical epic to deliver a story far larger than its opening crime.
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Historical Context & Significance
Five Decembers won the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Novel and was published under James Kestrel, a pen name for novelist Jonathan Moore.