One man at the heart of American power must undertake a crucial wartime spy mission that will take him into enemy territory before he even leaves US soil.
– Kane
[ About Kane ]
Washington DC, 1941.
Quincy Kane, hero of the Boston Police Department and scourge of organised crime, is now a Secret Service agent. His meteoric rise means he’s trusted to guard the most important man in the country: President Roosevelt.
Then Imperial Japan attacks the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
For Kane, American entry to World War II means the most crucial mission of his career: a complex scheme of bribery and subterfuge that will see him cross the Atlantic. He could change the course of the conflict and save thousands of Allied lives.
First, though, he will have to survive a return to the world of organised crime via the City of Angels itself: Los Angeles, where every gangster has Quincy Kane in their crosshairs.
[ My Review ]
Kane, by award-winning author Graham Hurley, published June 19th with Head of Zeus and is described as ‘a gripping WWII spy thriller set in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor‘. It is the tenth instalment in the Spoils of War collection featuring some of the most momentous stories and figures of the era. The appeal of this collection is that each novel is a standalone and in a non-chronological order, making it a wonderful pick ‘n mix for all lovers of historical fiction.
One fascinating feature about Kane is Hurley’s method of character introduction. One would think that Quincy Kane, the main protagonist of Kane, has featured in multiple books, with references to his earlier cases and his back story. It all feels very organic, with a fantastic flow and a sense of control, leaving every reader comfortable that they are in a safe pair of hands from the get-go.
Ex-Boston PD, Quincy Kane travels to Washington DC with a reputation. He is reliable, hard-working and loyal, traits that are very important in his role as a member of the Secret Service team in charge of the protection of the US President Franklin D Roosevelt. America, on the cusp of joining the war, is on tenterhooks and, when news of the atrocity at Pearl Harbor reaches their ears, the nightmare becomes a reality. Scrambling to keep the troops safe at all costs, a plan is hatched. Kane must return to LA, the city where he had previously taken down a huge counterfeiting operation, to reignite his relationship with some old acquaintances.
Kane is quite happy to take on this role as it allows him to reconnect with an old flame, Lou Mahoney, a tough reporter with an even tougher reputation. Meanwhile, on a visit to see his family, Kane gets difficult news regarding his younger sister that leaves him reeling. His emotions are all over the place. Mahoney understands him like no other person. He has never met a woman like her but can he win her over? Is she ready to settle down? When in LA, Kane gets even more distracted when he is forced to deal with seriously dangerous gangsters, amidst a threatening world on the verge of collapse.
There is a lot going on in this novel so you really do get a bang for your buck. There are many real historical figures that feature in Kane adding a real level of authenticity to the storyline. Multiple threads criss-cross back and forth as Kane gets caught up in more than one hair-raising scenario. Snakes, Indians, scorpions, bullets, exotic women, and even a handy belt, all feature in this smart thriller that really is quite the epic tale.
Kane is a novel littered with quick-fire, intelligent banter mixed in with strong women, romance and murder. Hollywood shenanigans, fast-talkers and nasty gangsters all intertwine in this stonking novel. As the story comes to a close and our hero is quite battered and bruised, I was left wondering if there would be a Kane off-shoot, but I expect we will just have to wait and see. The unexpected epilogue may be a feature of this series so I may have to investigate further!!
Kane is an exciting and tense reading experience, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Hard-boiled fiction done well is always such a treat and Kane is no exception.
[ Thank you to Sophie Ransom of Ransom PR for the invitation to join the blog tour and for a copy of Kane by Graham Hurley in exchange for my honest review ]
[ Bio ]
Graham Hurley is a documentary maker and a novelist. For the last two decades he’s written full-time, penning nearly fifty books. Two made the short list for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, while Finisterre – the first in the Spoils of War collection – was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award. Graham lives in East Devon with his lovely wife, Lin.
Follow Graham at grahamhurley.co.uk
