Hal Glatzer, The Last Full Measure

The Last Full Measure

Hal Glatzer

Perseverance Press, April 2006, $13.95, 296 pp.

ISBN 1880284847

Swing musician Katy Green is going from job to job in November of 1941 in New York City and the surrounding areas to make ends meet, since musicians are paid poorly, when a phone call has her traveling to California. Her friends, who she played with in a band last year, want her to join them on a well paying gig on the Lurline sailing to Hawaii, with a possibility of further employment with the cruise line.

When she arrives in San Francisco she meets the lead singer, Hawaiian Roselani Akau. When the band boards the ship Katy learns that the band wants her to join them to look for treasure on the Big Island. Also on board the ship is Roselani's brother Bill, who wants to get to the treasure first. While Katy ponders what to do about the treasure hunt, she stumbles over the murdered body of Bill. With anti-Japanese sentiment running high, one of the Japanese crew is arrested for the homicide. Katy doesn't think he's guilty, and after she deals with the treasure hunt she intends to look for clues that will exonerate the jailed man, not realizing that she is putting her life in danger.

Readers gain a different viewpoint on the events leading to the war in the Pacific, as American imperialism and manifest destiny are seen through the eyes of a pure blooded Hawaiian who worries that her people will become assimilated. The feelings towards the Japanese, even those who are second generation Hawaiian citizens, shows the fear and hatred that existed towards them prior to Pearl Harbor. Besides being an excellent atmospheric historical novel, the mystery is brilliantly crafted with the killer hidden in plain sight.