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liked this book a lot, A pithy story of war, friendship and racial bigotry in the's, with a nice little mystery towards the end Red Sky in Morning is one of the best World Warnovels I have read.
The novel opens in San Diego where Ensign Peter Maxwell and his new bride are starting married life with him directing the choir and feeling guilty for not being more active in the war.
When he sees a posting for four officers to serve on an ammo ship, he talks his three friends, the Fantail Four quartet, into applying, They discover the duty involves being in charge of a ship of largely untrained African American sailors who come from bigcity ghettoes, As the ship pulls into San Francisco's Port Chicago, the crew witnesses a horrific explosion that paints the sky red, After a mutiny by the remaining black sailors, the Liberty Hill must step in to load ammo, This difficult task is made worse by the racist captain who would love to see the Fantail Four and the black sailors fail, He takes four of his white friends and goes on shore leave, Ater loading the ship without incident, they sail into a typhoon and lose sight of the ships that are guarding them, After a white officer is found murdered, it is up to Peter to find the murderer, After a second crew member is killed, Peter realizes he is fighting against the captain, Great read! This is a good story, a bit predictable, but quite suspenseful, nevertheless, The story centers on race relations on board an ammunition ship during World War II, An allblack crew is led by a very bigoted white captain, and four white commissioned officers, A few bigoted white noncommissioned officers also help to make the ship a virtual "powder keg", A murder is committed on board the ship, and a white officer and a black seamana police detective in civilian lifeteam up to solve the mystery,

I didn't read this bookI listened to the audiobook, The reading, by Joe Barrett, is fantastic, The four white officers on board are musicians and the narrator sings one of the songs, Quite extraordinary on an audiobook, And the many accents that Barrett reads into the sailors voices, from all parts of the country, seem realistic to my ears, Don't read this booklisten to it! My copy is labeled as a 'not for sale uncorrected proof' so I can not be sure how the authorship is handled in the main printing.
This book of mine is signed by the authorboth as 'Patrick Culhane" and as Max Allan Collins, Why one uses a pseudonym and then admits to it is beyond me, but there it is,
Since I have read a few Max Allan Collins books, including some coauthored numbers, I was surprised at the simplistic, country boy style at the start of the book.
I expected something more along the line of what I've found in Collin's noir offerings, But this was supposed to be a fictionalized memoir about his grandfather's time in World War II, I was half through it before the murder took place and I realized I was in the midst of a mystery, And a mystery piled on top of a musical plotline, a racial one and a romantic one, Lots of balls to juggle, But Mr. Culhane pulled things together and while there was really no question about whodunit there were many touching moments, not the schmaltz one expects from Collins, nor what one might be seeking in a mystery, but well done and wellintentioned.
And when read in, well received by any raving commie lunatic who believes in racial equality,
Recommended. Takes a while to get moving, but plenty of solid history about the profound color barriers in the armed services during WWII, Always a fan of Max Collins, especially his Nate Heller series, . . at the author's suggestion, I've started his books under the pseudonym Patrick Culhane and enjoyed them both, . . The story is loosely based on Collins' dad's experiences in command of a Liberty Ship manned by an allnegro staff with a little murder mystery thrown in, . . FUN SUMMER READ!!! This book is really more historical fiction than a mystery, It's an excellent portrayal of a segregated ship during World War II with a mystery thrown in as the climax of the story the murder happens in the last part of the book.
Although it wasnt what I was expecting, I still enjoyed it tremendously, This is a book about men theres only one important female character, racial relations, sexual orientation and war, With that combination of themes, no wonder one of the characters called the ship the USS Powder Keg,

The author was really true to the times so theres very foul epithets directed to both African American and gays, If you are very sensitive about those subjects, this book may not be for you, However, I think its impossible to accurately portray and make the reader feel the treatment that both these groups were subjected if the book was politically correct,

I really liked how the author showed a complete picture of some of the bigoted characters, I confess I liked some of those men despite their prejudice and narrowmindedness because some of them could still be brave, witty and kind in other circumstances,

Music also was an important part of the plot and the way the author bridged the gap between the main character a white man who had never met a black man before he had enlisted and the black sailors.
It also served to reflect the atmosphere of the time and the war,

The mystery unfurled slowly and it was handled very well, I thought I knew who was going to get whacked but when the murder happened, it really surprised me, The murderer wasn't as much of a surprise although he was just one of the suspects it wasn't one of those where there are neon signs pointing at the murderer that everybody ignores.


Joe Barrett did an excellent job with the narration, He has a very masculine voice but he was able to manage all the different characters and and the emotions were pitchperfect, There were even a few songs hes not a great singer but at least could carry a tune, : Ill definitely be listening more of his narrations in the future, The name Patrick Culhane is a pseudonym for mystery writer Max Allan Collins, I like his writing style and that his stories are based on thorough research, This one uses the author's father's experiences in the Navy in World War II as the basis of the story, A murder is committed on board an ammunition ship in the Pacific and ensign Peter Maxwell has to solve the crime, Complicating matters is that the crew is AfricanAmerican and the captain is a racist,Summer,historical fiction,HNS,World War II,Port Chicago,African American Sailors,Military Great war story I don't know what made me pick up this book, perhaps in error It's a WW II Navy story about a newly married young man with musical talents.
He and his Navy quartet decide to join the war efforts just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, But they make a pact to stay together so sign up for a ship that will haul ammo, As it turns out all officers are white, but the crew is AfricanAmericans, They must learn to trust one another in order to work safely together, The story was interesting but the language went beyond the "sailor's mouth" and I felt it ruined the story, That being said it was interesting and the murder mystery evolved, Not one I'd read again, but it was OK, It's, World War II is well under way, and Ensign Peter

Maxwell is enjoying easy days in San Diego as base choir director and warm nights with his new bride, Kay.
But there's a war out there waiting to be fought, and Pete wants to be part of it,

When a request comes up for officers on an ammo ship prophetically named after Pete's Iowa hometown, Liberty Hill, newly promoted Lieutenant Maxwell and the rest of his vocal quartet, the Fantail Four, volunteer.
The duty they pull is dangerous even for wartime: the young officers find themselves in charge of a ship of largely untrained African American sailors who hail from bigcity ghettoes, Dixie farms, and all ports in between.


Very good story, very foul language, First Sentence: Ensign Peter Maxwell came slowly awake, teased by the expanse of ocean Shimmering with morning sun out the bay window of the studio apartment,

Peter Maxwell is tired of desk assignments and, along with three of his friends, wants to be part of the war, so they put in for sea duty on the first ship they can.
They didnt expect to be assigned to a munitions ship with a primarily black crew and bigoted captain and officers, When one of Maxwells friends is murdered, its up to him to find the killer while keeping the peace among the officers and crew,

I found the historical information in this book to be fascinating, Living in the San Francisco/Bay Area, I know of Port Chicago, but did not know any of the details of the WWII ship explosion which occurred there,

The characters are welldrawn, particularly Maxwell and “Sarge” Washington, a black Chicago excop, I hadnt thought about the expression “yo mama” in years,

The plot was a bit too pat with too many coincidences helping it along its way, I did identify the killer way too early, which knocked down my rating, Still, it was a very good homage to the black sailors and the few whites who saw past color during WWII,

RED SKY IN MORNING SuspenseLt, Peter MaxwellSan Francisco/Bay AreaG
Culhane, Patrick aka Max Allan Collins Standalone
Harper Fiction,, US Paperback ISBN:

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