The Last Full Measure: A Katy Green Mystery

As are all of Hal Glatzer's books, this one is exceptionally well written, drawing the reader in to the story immediately, and keeping him/her there. The only real problem with having read this book is in knowing that it will be a year or so (or close to it!) before the next Katy Green story appears. That's sad. This book, however, is not quite a Katy Green story in the manner of the first two, which had at least as much music as mystery in them. This one is rather undecided about what it wants to be: there is some music, and a little mystery--well actually, more suspense than mystery, I think, and a lot of history. Since I love history as much as I love music and mystery, I found this to be an engrossing story. Having never met anyone from Hawaii until last year, I'd never given much thought to the history of the islands other than the basics than most people know. I was little more than a toddler when WWII broke out, and it was the European conflict that most affected my life, rather than that in the Pacific. Of course, I think everyone dreams of an ocean cruise, especially on one of the vintage liners. Reading this book was almost as good as the actual thing, I think, which is probably not possible any more, anyway. All in all, even though there was not as much music as I might have liked, I didn't feel at all gypped by this book. There are so many other elements that make up for that lack, I have no hesitation at all in recommending it. It succeeds on every level--satisfying reading, excellent characterizations, splendid historical data presented in a readable fashion, and enough suspense/mystery to keep any reader happy. There is a brief allusion to an older Katy mystery tale. Dare we hope--?