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Face of the Enemy: A New York in Wartime Mystery #1 (Helluva War #1)
by
Joanne Dobson,
Beverle Graves Myers (Goodreads Author)
December 1941: America reels from the brutal attack on Pearl Harbor. Both patriotism and paranoia grip New York as the city frantically mobilizes for war. Nurse Louise Hunter is outraged when the FBI, in a midnight sweep of prominent Japanese residents,storms in to arrest her patient’s wife. The desperately ill Professor Oakley is married to Masako Fumi. The nurse vows to...more
Paperback, 250 pages
Published
September 4th 2012
by Poisoned Pen Press
(first published September 1st 2012)
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I recently read The Face of the Enemy, the first in a new series by Beverle Graves Myers and Joanne Dobson. Myers has written a historical mystery series and Joanne Dobson, an academic mystery series. Now the two women have collaberated on a book set at the end of 1941, just as the United States enters World War II. An art exhibit of works by a Japanese artist opens in New York, but not everyone there wants it to open. A sociallite vandalizes one of the paintings and the artist's husband collaps...more
This is a new departure for Joanne Dobson; a historical mystery set on the home front -- the New York City home front -- of World War II. She has created an interesting cast of characters -- a Louisville-born nurse moved to NYC just before the war, Louise, who lives in a boarding house in Brooklyn, and one of her roommates, a brash City College graduate, Catherine -- known as Cabby -- who is working for the New York Times and trying to break into serious reporting. There is also a New York City...more
Extremely belated review:
"2:33. 2:33 on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and nothing will ever be the same."
This is the second Netgalley offering I've read this year which featured an interracial (Japanese immigrant and white American) couple in 1941 who were directly affected by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The two books were utterly different in all other ways, though, apart from both being very good.
Here, the couple is Robert and Masako Oakley, respectively a professor and an artist living in Manh...more
"2:33. 2:33 on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and nothing will ever be the same."
This is the second Netgalley offering I've read this year which featured an interracial (Japanese immigrant and white American) couple in 1941 who were directly affected by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The two books were utterly different in all other ways, though, apart from both being very good.
Here, the couple is Robert and Masako Oakley, respectively a professor and an artist living in Manh...more
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars. For plot and setting 4. WWII is a popular setting these days and the plight of an artist who is Japanese-American caught my attention, having just read Sophie Littlefield's new book. For character and dialogue, I think a 3 is honest. I applaud the co-authors on working for a sense of the times in dialogue, relationships among characters, and the truly ugly anti-Japanese sentiments right after Pearl Harbor. I'd read another book by Dobson & Myers based on this...more
December 1941 New York City comes bracingly alive in this mystery full of vibrant characters in a good, galloping plot.
Short chapters and multiple point of views help keep the action moving.
Details, Freudian fascination, and FBI versus NYPD provide painless history lessons.
Illuminating a more human view of the "greatest generation" in youth, FACE OF THE ENEMY still honors justice rising over prejudice.
I love when mysteries touch both mind and heart. FACE OF THE ENEMY does. Hope more are coming!
Short chapters and multiple point of views help keep the action moving.
Details, Freudian fascination, and FBI versus NYPD provide painless history lessons.
Illuminating a more human view of the "greatest generation" in youth, FACE OF THE ENEMY still honors justice rising over prejudice.
I love when mysteries touch both mind and heart. FACE OF THE ENEMY does. Hope more are coming!
Nurse Louise is on private duty taking care of a Columbia university professor when his Japanese artist wife is arrested for being an enemy alien. The gentle woman is also the main suspect in the killing of her art dealer on the eve of Pearl Harbor. Louise also rooms at a house in Brooklyn where other strands of wartime activity converge. There's a lot happening in this book, and the plot lines are hard to summarize, but you won't regret reading it.
An interesting mystery set around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. A Japanese artist in NYC is accused of not only murdering an art gallery owner, but also charges of being an enemy alien. Her gravely ill husband is unable to help her, however his nurse helps them fight the charges.
Best part was humanizing the racism war engenders. I wanted to like it more but it just wasn't good enough. Cardboard stereotypes, clumsy pacing, and predictable. Really needed a 2.5 rating.
Good idea--NYC just as Pearl Harbor is bombed. Art, Japanese round-up, murder, good setting--but rather poor writing. too bad.
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Like Karen Pelletier, Joanne Dobson is an English professor, having taught for many years at Fordham University, also at Amherst College and at Tufts University. Unlike Karen, she has never been faced with an on-campus homicide, nor has she ever been called in as a consultant to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. But she has occasionally asked herself, "what if . . . ?"
More about Joanne Dobson...
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