These incidents, which are intricately worked into the richly depicted lives of the killers and the killed, the historical background of the islands, and the diverse cultural patterns of Hawaiians multi-ethnic groups, are authentically communicated by the very knowledgeable Hawaiian author, and will greatly appeal to the reader. The narrative frame is the Honolulu production a part-Samoan playwright's theater piece, in which a large swath of Hawaiian residents will form the cast and work elsewhere in the production.
Ned, the amiable playwright, has introductions to many of Honolulu's residents, a mélange of rich and influential haoles (whites), Chinese enterpreneurs and their families, pure-blood and Japanese Hawaiians of various mixtures, some of whom still retain their original conservative customs, and pure and mixed ethnic Hawaiians trained in the ancient culture. Ned is shepherded around the social scene by Mina, a journalist and the Police Chief's sister in law, who assists him in meeting all the residents involved in the actions that comprise the plots.
They are an appealing couple who actually become the novel’s chief investigators and are almost immediately embroiled in a murder when they meet at the famous Honolulu Bishop Museum where the despised director has been killed and it appears that one of three irreplaceable Royal Hawaiian portraits is now missing. With these and other crimes connected to antiquities scams involving the famous Gumps Department store, the theft of a priceless packet of historical Hawaiian stamps stolen by a thug whom Ned apprehends on a cliff top where he has formerly taken part in a wild ox hunt, the couple are "off to the races" of multiple illegal activities including some by the Chief of Police. Along the way some readers may recognize the several allusions to the famous Punahou High School (which President Obama attended) as Mina introduces Ned to an ever larger cast of characters, who attended that influential institution.
All these subplots take place among the commission of unexplained crimes around the Islands that keep the reader on a roller coaster of excitement. In the end, a mysterious note painted on the newly found portrait of the Hawaiian king and queen that has been returned to the Bishop Museum is translated and explains several of the conundrums that have bedeviled the investigators. A fabulous Hawaiian dinner — throughout the book special Hawaiian dishes are described in detail — celebrates the packed house performance of Ned's play and he extends the hospitality shown him by inviting Mina and prominent members of the cast to return with him to his Samoan home, which fortunately boasts a guesthouse to comfortably accommodate them all.
If you're up for the intertwined multiple murders of players ranging from a seemingly lowly housemaid to a scheming upper class murderer with her eyes on a high status marriage, and want to discover a complex and almost wholly unknown cultural setting, this intimate visit to Hawaii is definitely the read for you!
* Joan Young Gregg is Professor Emeritus of New York City Technical College of the City University of New York, where she was the Program Director of their College English as a Second Language Program. Her doctoral work, focused on medieval popular literature, is the subject of her book-length study Devils, Women and Jews: Reflection of the Other in Medieval Sermon Stories (Suny Series in Medieval Literature). She originated a Master’s Program in English Language and Literature at Kunming Teachers College, Kunming. China; led seminars in English language and Literature for college teachers in Southeast Asia; and is the coauthor (with Serena Nanda ) of two 'crime and culture' novels: The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder and Assisted Dying: An Ethnographic Murder Mystery on Florida’s Gold Coast. She can be reached at jgregg5@nyc.rr.com.
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