Yet another wonderful addition to the exceptional Spoils of War series. Quincy Kane is a brilliantly depicted character and flawed hero and Hurley paints a vivid picture of an America caught with its pants down by the Japanese attack on Peal Harbour and the panic, plotting and reorganisation that followed.

I am in awe of Graham Hurley and how he manages to come up with such quality so frequently and cover so broad a range of subjects.

A part of me still mourns the end of his magnificent police procedurals featuring Faraday, Winter and Suttle but times move on and we should just be grateful that Graham Hurley is still writing such exciting, well researched and high quality novels.

Part of the Spoils of War series, loosely connected novels set during WW2 and before, this is the latest in the series and rather different from its predecessors. This tale is set almost entirely in the USA around the Pearl Harbour period, and America's entry into the war, almost by default as Japan and Germany declared war on the USA first. As in the other novels historical figures mix with fictional, in this case the Roosevelts, and the only recurring character from earlier novels, Winston Churchill has a brief cameo.

The central character is an American agent, a bodyguard of the president, Quincy Kane. Agent Kane is tasked with overseeing an operation involving 'perfect' counterfeit bank notes, part of a plan to win French forces over to the allied side in Europe. This plotline, however, becomes submerged beneath a parallel narrative which links Kane's journalist girlfriend with organised crime in Los Angeles.

The story reads well, as is usual with this series of novels, but is not among the best, in my opinion, as plot lines rise up, are set to one side, or are too easily resolved. There is also a rather cryptic and depressing epilogue to finish the book, which highlights the pointlessness of much of what precedes. Perhaps that was the point.

I’ve become a great fan of Graham’s books which combine the drama of real historical events – often revolving around key turning points in 20th century history – with the excitement of a thriller. Although all the books are part of the ‘Spoils of War’ collection, the great thing is they are non-chronological so can be read in any order or as standalones.

In this case the historical starting point is the Japanese bombing of the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in December 1941, described by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the time as “a date which will live in infamy”, and which triggered the US’s entry into WW2.

Quincy Kane’s position in the Secret Service, charged with protecting the President, places him close to the heart of things. He can see the difficult decisions the President must grapple with as well as Roosevelt’s day-to-day struggles with the physical consequences of the polio he contracted as a young man. The author creates a neat personal connection between the two men and, much later, another character.

Kane also witnesses first-hand the difficult relationship between Roosevelt, who favours order and routine, and the mercurial Winston Churchill who seems to thrive on chaos. However, what Roosevelt and Churchill do agree on is the need to stop French ships falling into German hands. A plan is hatched which requires Kane to revisit the organized crime case he solved years before which made him the toast of the Boston Police Department. The only trouble is the people involved are still serving prison time.

From this point on we’re into full-on thriller territory with Kane reunited with a former colleague with a love of reptiles and the music of Wagner. Soon however Kane comes up against a human reptile with an ego the size of a planet, a penchant for violence and a dangerous fascination with the woman in Kane’s life, LA Times journalist Lou Mahoney. Mahoney is surely every red-blooded heterosexual man’s dream: smart, attractive and skilled in the bedroom. It’s a distraction from the mission Kane has been assigned and things become even more difficult when anti-Japanese sentiment scuppers an essential part of the plan.

It’s fair to say Kane doesn’t get through unscathed. Actually, let’s be honest, he’s pretty battered and bruised by the end of the book and makes some death-defying escapes of which James Bond would be proud. The end of the book finds Kane in a different part of the world, possibly leaving things open for a future reunion?