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Katy Green is a swing musician attempting to make enough money to survive in 1941. She is asked by two former band members to join them in an all-girl band on a pleasure cruise to Hawaii. Katy believes that this is the opportunity to enjoy herself and make some money. Unfortunately things do not go as planned. One of the band members is involved with a Hawaiian whose sister is also in the band. The siblings do not get along and this causes internal tensions. The siblings also seem to have a secret that they do not want to share but might involve hidden treasure. As the United States is on the brink of war, the passengers on board are short-tempered and somewhat racist. Several of the passengers are of Japanese descent but consider themselves Hawaiian and therefore American. Regardless of how they view themselves, some of the passengers can only see them as the enemy. When a man is killed, a Japanese radio engineer is the first suspect the crew turns to. Katy must find the true killer, stop a saboteur and help her friends deal with their own personal problems. All in all, this 'easy gig' is anything but easy. For the most part, Katy Green is an appealing narrator. She is a single musician trying to make a living doing something that she loves. Not only does she play in a swing band, she is also a classically trained violinist. Katy is smart enough to realize that there are larger problems in the world, but that these events are out of her control. Rather than worry about these larger problems, she is more interested in spending her time and energy helping those she can. Katy is also somewhat naive in that she is unwilling to see the worse in people and that she rarely jumps to conclusions about people. This combination of self-sufficiency, determination to help others and her belief in the overall goodness of people makes Katy enjoyable to read about. THE LAST FULL MEASURE is the third mystery to feature Katy Green. In all of the books in this series, Katy must deal with the consequences of United States international polices in her day-to-day investigating and life. She frequently finds herself learning a lot about either a culture or a specific person's history through the course of her investigation. In THE LAST FULL MEASURE, Katy must deal with the hostilities and concerns that lead up to World War II. In addition, Katy learns a lot about the culture of Hawaii and its recent troubled history. Hal Glatzer attempts to both entertain and educate as he includes relevant facts in his fictional accounts.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, March 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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