Fire and Vengeance

May 1, 2020
Who's responsible for the elementary school explosion, and why are persons of interest turning up dead? On the big island of Hawai'i, Chief Detective Koa Kāne rushes to the KonaWili School in response to reports of disaster in the wake of Hurricane Ida. An explosion has destroyed the structure, killing or injuring everyone inside. Koa learns that the school was heedlessly built upon a volcanic vault, and with improper concrete walls to boot. The builders must have known that the construction was reckless, but who's ultimately responsible? Righteous Koa decides to confront the general contractor, Hank Boyle, before going to the mayor and governor. He and junior detective Piki break down the door at Boyle's home to find his corpse hanging from the ceiling by an electrical cord. Though the scene's been staged to look like a suicide, Koa notices details that indicate murder. A meeting with the mayor and other politicos is unsatisfying because they act more interested in closure than in justice. In the meantime, the clock is ticking, for those responsible for the KonaWili disaster are wasting no time in covering their tracks. The pressure on Koa increases with the news that his brother Ikaika, currently in prison, must undergo surgery for a brain tumor. Then Koa gets an urgent call from Piki telling him that Arthur Witherspoon, the architect on the school project, has been brazenly shot to death in his home while his wife was upstairs. Can the ruthless killer be stopped before the body count rises further? McCaw's third spices its by-the-numbers plot with interesting local details and a crackling pace.

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May 11, 2020
The eruption of Hualalai Mountain, one of the five volcanoes that make up Hawaii Island, drives McCaw’s sluggish third Koa Kane Hawaiian mystery (after 2019’s Off the Grid). This natural disaster kills 14 children and four teachers at the KonaWili elementary school. Investigators discover that the school was constructed directly on top of a volcanic fault. “The builders deliberately put those kids at risk. That’s murder by reckless endangerment.... Somebody’s going to pay for this. And pay big time,” vows Chief Det. Koa Kane. He tracks down the project’s general contractor and architect, but in both cases only arrives in time to find that each has been murdered. Koa becomes entangled in a sticky web of deceit as he uncovers a conspiracy that dates back decades. The slow-moving plot picks up as it approaches the dramatic showdown between Koa and the chief villain. Readers who like unsubtle, straightforward conflicts between good and evil will be satisfied. Agent: Mel Parker, Mel Parker Books.

May 1, 2020
McCaw has again cooked up a tasty stew with ingredients from a mix of staples from the crime-fiction pantry. His excellent Off the Grid (2019) combined elements of police procedural and thriller. This fine novel adds a theme Ross Macdonald cherished: a decades-old crime rising up like a revenant to damage the present. Again we meet Koa Kane, chief detective in the Hilo, Hawaii, police. Kane is also drawn from a familiar template: the hero guilty of a crime, in this case murder, that he must somehow expiate. The occasion is a volcanic explosion that destroys a school building and kills 14 children and 4 teachers. As Koa investigates criminal neglect, the luminaries responsible for building the school near the volcano begin dying. Koa, a fan of Sherlock Holmes, honors his hero by observing the jarring detail in one death scene. It's a supposed suicide by hanging, but the rope is the wrong length. Koa's effort to connect everything makes for fine reading. So does the sudden escape attempt at the finale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)