Customer Reviews

Murder at Pearl Harbor (Mysteries in Time Series)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Could we please have some sort of moratorium on the plot device of a hunky young naval officer, son of a gruff-but-ultimately-loving admiral, in a doomed love affair with a Japanese girl in Hawaii in the last days before the Pearl Harbor attack? It probably wasn't original when it featured in the 1976 film Midway (Collector's Edition) and it has also been a major part of at least two recent murder mysteries -- this one, and Max Allan Collins' The Pearl Harbor Murders (2001), a book that has more in common with this one than just the title.

Considering that Collins' mystery and this one are built around the same set of real-life facts, events, and personalities, I was surprised by how much poorer a job Walker did with it all than Collins did. Some of the things "historical figures" do in this book struck me as uncharacteristic, based on what I've read about them in real life. One or two, in fact, seem to show up for no other reason than to have one more "historical figure" cameo. And speaking of "uncharacteristic," how likely is it that a naval intelligence specialist would reveal so much of her operation to a reporter she's barely met? And was naval intelligence HQ at Pearl Harbor really so easy to break into (by crawling through the air ducts, speaking of clichés)?

Without giving anything away, I'll say that one fairly substantial subplot involving an "historical figure" is largely irrelevant to the novel. It could have been left out altogether without weakening the narrative. As another reviewer notes, everything that happens in this book before the action shifts to Hawaii could have been summarized in much less space -- especially since much of what we're left with from that section are unresolved plot threads. As it is, the title murder doesn't even happen until the second half of the book. Instead, we get long descriptions of irrelevancies, like one character getting dressed, or another drinking a glass of milk.

I have some other problems with the plot too, but listing them would give away too much of the solution to the mystery.

Finally, one of the things I really liked about the Collins book was the way it wove the "atmospherics" of pre-war Hawaii into the story. Walker, on the other hand, has little of this. He can tell the story, but doesn't really invoke the "feel" of Hawaii nearly so well. I was hoping for much better, and I was really disappointed.

I began this book with great anticipation, but ended with much disappointment. I thought the book had a good premise; however, it just didn't work for me.

In this story everything that happens before Gwen goes to Pearl Harbor could be left out, or summerized in a sentence or two because none of it is explained or really makes any difference in the end.

Who is Charlie Bauer and what is his connection to Gwen's friend Jill? We never find out.

Who exactly did Gwen beat over the head with her unbrella? Don't know.

How did anyone find out that Quon had given the intercepted message to Sammy and Sammy in turn to Gwen? No telling.

Who ran down Sammy and Quon, and whatever happened to Sammy? The list of unanswered questions goes on and on.

But perhaps the biggest question of all is: Why would Gwen wear a NAVY skirt with BLACK pumps?

All kidding aside, I would give this author another chance. The parts of this story that were good were very good. It was clear the author researched his subject and for the most part it was well thought out and clear. I just wanted all the loose ends tied up by the end.

The book was very interestisng Jim Walker did a very good using historical characters to tie into to the entire book and I thought that he did a very good writting the book. The characters that are used are just right because there are not to many but there are just enough so that everything that is taken place is completed. Also I thought he does a very good job bringing up the question that the goverment may have covered this up.