Five Knives is the first in a series of tales featuring San Francisco newspaper reporter, Will Finch. D.F. Bailey has written ten novels in the same vein. Five Knives, the Front Matter says, is inspired by true events.
Will is almost hit by a falling body in the opening scene of this story. It hits the pavement in front of him. From there he pursues the story - as a good reporter would. But he’s not a reporter yet. He is a master of journalism student at UC Berkeley after spending four years in the army with about half that time at Abu Ghraib prison. He uses the story of the falling body to land himself a position as a free-lance reporter at the Post. Finch continues to pursue the story, strengthening his position at the newspaper, and putting his and his girl-friend’s lives in danger. At one point in his investigation he comes across a small man, duct-taped to a straight backed wood chair who had been punctured by five different knives, including a “short paring knife buried in the left ear”. Hence the title of the book.
Will develops as a character as reflected by his backstory and the characters around him. Will’s girl friend, Cecily, works as a research librarian, and he has a friend who was a recent graduate of Berkeley Law. So he has a solid support team. This allows Bailey to use Finch as an amateur detective without the direct need for police support. Although he does report to the paper and to the police as the story unfolds.
Bailey does a good job of making it all work. This is the first in the series, and it does feel as though Bailey hasn’t quite gotten his writer’s sea legs under him with this one. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series, but I look forward to going there. There is nothing delicate about the tone of this story. It is very much in the style of Micky Spillane, Raymond Chandler, and Robert B. Parker private eye mysteries. Falling bodies do not “go gentle into that good night”.