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Those who love Seattle and 40s PI crime fiction will enjoy Curt Colbert's latest mystery, SAYONARAVILLE, featuring private investigator Jake Rossiter and his lovely sidekick Miss Jenkins. SAYONARAVILLE gives the reader a well-researched and historically accurate perspective on local politics and corruption amidst the bigotry and anti-Japanese sentiment of post-World War II Seattle. Friendship, family, honor and freedom in the face of bigotry, greed and corruption are SAYONARAVILLE'S overriding themes and frame Colbert's well-written mystery. The seamy streets of Seattle reflect a city rich with post-war prosperity and the confusion of men fresh from battle. While civic corruption is a given in Chicago or New York, it is unexpected here in the Emerald City and surprises the reader with its savage brutality. Cops conspire with several sectors of society to victimize Japanese-Americans only recently returned to their community at the end of the war. They had been absent in service with the all-Japanese 442nd Regimental Combat Team or held in internment camps. There is extraordinary period detail to the mystery that makes it a fun and informative read, much of it offered through Jake's internal dialog and observations. Jake mobigates. Miss Jenkins chews Blackjack gum. A milkman delivers Carnation milk in glass bottles, cream floating on top. Bad guy Eddie Valhalla reminds Jake of Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death. Manny Velcher's natty fashion includes a two-tone jacket with a wide collar shirt, double pleated pants and is "finished off with Argyle socks and a pair of spit-shined Cordovan loafers." If occasionally the language or details seem forced, the sheer pleasure of its use forgives any excess. The geographic particulars of the work give the reader an excellent sense of time and place. Poor Italians live in the Ranier Valley's Garlic Gulch. Downtown, Little Tokyo transitions into Chinatown and the intrigue set in this neighborhood provides more insight into the warren of tunnels in underground Seattle. The city's 1940s edge is defined with the Edmond Meaney's red and green neon signs flaring from the hotel's 29th floor at 45th and Brooklyn. Uglytown's books are remarkably well designed and this one is no exception. SAYONARAVILLE has an old-timey look and feel that is a good match for the mystery. The vintage Seattle photos that illustrate the cover are sepia-toned and the variant type faces used suggest the screaming headlines of another, less sophisticated era. A poster calling Seattle's Japanese a citizen to report for internment is reproduced on the inside of the cover and is a compelling warning of the plot within. SAYONARAVILLE is Colbert's second novel featuring Rossiter and Miss Jenkins, the first being RAT CITY published by Uglytown in 2002. RAT CITY was a Shamus Award nominee. There is enough background in SAYONARAVILLE to tie the two mysteries together without being redundant, but a reader will also be comfortable reading the books as standalones. Colbert has a great knack for using historical detail, significant events, and important social issues to create compelling and very readable mysteries.
Reviewed by Maureen Battistella, October 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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