UnHoly Ghost: A Dr. Kel McKelvey Novel

Kel McKelvey

by Thomas Holland

As the director of the Army's Central Identification Laboratory, Robert "Kel" McKelvey has made a career of recovering and identifying the remains of America's missing servicemen, but now, burned out by bureaucracy and office politics, he's thinking of giving it all up when he receives word that an old skeleton has been found at the site of a long-abandoned German POW camp in Arkansas. Reunited with aging black-sheep FBI agent, Mike Levine, Kel agrees to tackle one last case, but the two soon find themselves enmeshed in a web of duplicity and decades-old intrigue involving a shadowy group known only as the Heilige Geist - the Holy Ghost. The skeletal fragments may be seventy years old, but the forces still at play have no intention of the truth ever coming to light. The countdown has started, and now time is fast running out-for both men's lives.Taking readers deep inside the world of military and forensic science, UnHoly Ghost is the third in the Dr. Kel McKelvey series of mystery thrillers.

410 pages, Paperback

Published May 24, 2019

About the author

Thomas Holland was raised in Arkansas and yet lived to tell about it. He was trained as a painter and printmaker in Salzburg, Austria, and at the University of Missouri, where he earned his BA in fine arts before taking an MA and a PhD in anthropology, also from Missouri, and later, a JD from the University of Hawaii. For almost 25 years he was the scientific director of the Department of Defense laboratory in Hawaii that searches for, and identifies, missing and unaccounted-for American military personnel. He led recovery missions in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, China, Iraq, Kuwait, and the workers’ paradise of North Korea. During his tenure at the lab, the remains of over 1600 missing men were identified and returned home, including the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier. He is a licensed attorney in Arkansas and the District of Columbia, and is one of only about 100 active board-certified forensic anthropologists in the whole known universe. He is a consultant to numerous national and international groups, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, and is the author of five previous novels and numerous, opaque, scientific and legal articles and book chapters. He currently is the Director of the Forensic Institute for Research and Education at Middle Tennessee State University, and his wife, Mary, split time between their home in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and a tiny apartment in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reviews

[Paul C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

unHoly Ghost is not only well written, it is clever in the positive sense of the word. Despite the fact that the story bounces back and forth between World War II and the recent present, Holland has managed to create a plot line that is tight, coherent, and compelling. The writing, while craft-driven, is neither stale nor derivative. Ian Fleming once observed that the writer must give the reader a reason to turn the page. Or as a publishing house editor stated, “When I deal with a slush pile of unsolicited manuscripts, I only look for a reason to stop reading.” Holland fulfills Fleming’s mandate. I found no reason to stop reading.

The plot includes every element required for a successful murder mystery – conspiracies, good guys, bad guys, dames, religious kooks, sadists, hookers, and Nazis, in fact lots of Nazis. Like a spider in its web, Holland skillfully binds these pieces together with the glue of forensic science.

With regard to science, in most murder mysteries forensic science is presented in one of three ways. First, the CSI way in which evidence is “sent to the lab for analysis.” Second, a scientifically illiterate author does enough research to use the correct terms, often in the wrong way. Then there’s the Holland approach.

In this and the others in the McKelvey series, forensic science is an integral component that is described by an accredited scientist with decades of experience, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, if you will. When someone asks Kel a question or for an explanation, in response the reader receives a master class, but never a drink from a firehose. In addition to finding out “who dunnit,” the reader leaves unHoly Ghost a wee bit smarter as well. One could reasonably conclude that unHoly Ghost could be read as a science textbook.

Those familiar with the personalities associated with the POW/MIA accounting community will recognize several Theophrastan characters in the book. (Sometime in the fourth century BCE, Theophrastus compiled thirty-three characters, such as The Dissimulator, The Reckless Cynic, The Stupid Man, etc. The classicist Mary Beard stated, “These Characters are people we know – they’re our quirky neighbors, our creepy bosses, our blind dates from hell.” Theophrastan characters might also be thought of as “types.”) Holland’s characters include the somewhat autobiographical Dr. McKelvey as the aggrieved nerd who only wants to do his job, Mike Levine as the volatile hard-drinking FBI agent, Davis Smart as the other nerd, Captain Jordan as the sinister mastermind, Robert Nolen as the lazy con man, Mary Louise as the comforting wife, Captain Bill Porter as the straight as a die but naive investigator, historian Hugh Rooney as yet another nerd, and of course, the aforementioned evil Nazis who Theophrastus might have described as the Offensive or Unpleasant Man. They’re all there, one more your next door neighbor than the next.

One interesting note about Holland’s characters is that we learn very little about them from the narrator. Instead, the inner person emerges from a description of the externals. For example, we know that FBI Special Agent Mike Levine misses his family, but we are left to guess whether his family loves him or if his kids think he’s a good dad. On the colonel’s orders, Mac babysits Bill Porter, yet we have to speculate whether Mac likes Bill or simply hates Bill’s enemies.

With regard to history and geography, Holland weaves both into the web of this novel with a delicate but effective hand. We learn a great deal about German POWs in the United States, as well as more about Arkansas than one would have ever expected, or wished to know.

The book is built upon a foundation of humor, but not the contrived set-up and punchline kind. Instead, the dialogue generally reads like the transcript of a surveillance tape. Though the characters are fictional, the dialogue is so convincing that one must conclude that Holland had these conversations with real people who have been disguised just enough to avoid any legal unpleasantries.

As for the exciting conclusion, after being given all of the clues in most murder mysteries, one sometimes anticipates a bathetic dénouement. Not in this case. In fact, there are two surprising solutions, neither fully anticipated. Both are described with pace and skill.

I noticed only one typo, which is unusual for self-published books. One wonders whether an excellent yet unnamed editor was involved with this project.

I heartily recommend this book and hope that the right director stumbles upon it. One problem with casting the McKelvey character in a major motion picture would be that we don’t know what he looks like. Like Maigret, all we are told is that Kel has a mustache. The rest is a forensic mystery that might be resolved in the next book in the McKelvey series.

Buy it, read it, recommend it to others.

[Jane Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Kel McKelvy #3. The novel has 2 plots going at the same time: a murder during World War II at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, and Kel and Levine (yay!) trying to work out what happened in present day Fort Smith, AR. Both plots are so engaging and have multi-dimensional characters. As usual, Holland gives an entertaining mix of humorous banter between Levine and Kel and also enough science to help the plot make sense to readers. I was on the edge of my seat towards the end, and I'm ready for Holland's next book right now.

[Danielle Gedz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel like it left too many questions unanswered. And it took a while to get going but once it did it had me

[Holly Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Keeps you on your toes,going from WW2 to modern day. With a very surprising ending. Just wish he'd publish more books in this series.

[Shuala Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Move over Kathy Reichs!

If you like Temperance Brennan, you’ll love Kel McKelvey. Based on historical facts and grounded in his own professional experience, Thomas Holland weaves together a clever tale of mystery and suspense in Unholy Ghost, the third in the Kel McKelvey series. But in all of his books, Holland does more than simply “tell a good tale.” With plenty of plot twists and turns, witty prose, and attention to detail, I never get bored in a Kel McKelvey story.

But my favorite part of a Kel McKelvey book is, perhaps, Kel himself. Holland has crafted an unpretentious hero that’s brilliant, and brave, and admirable, but who’s also real, and flawed, and relatable. I’ve fallen in love with Kel McKelvey. Please bring him back soon! (Overbearing and loveable Special Agent Levine, too.)