Hawaiian Mysteries

Hawaiian holiday turns mysterious when long-time friend leads narrator on a downhill slide into Rainbow Valley. The secret hidden there is revealed in this mini twisty-turner set in modern day Hawaii on the sleepy isle of Kauai. With a derelict parrot named Barfly on his shoulder, Sky says it’s never too late to fly. Note: In response to reader comments that the timeline was confusing, I re-wrote and re-published the story in April of 2017. I hope I have corrected that problem for my readers.

When photographer Autumn Season lands the job of official photographer at the prestigious Aloha Lagoon Resort, she's ecstatic. But a lively luau suddenly turns deadly, and Autumn realizes she may have accidentally snapped a picture of a murder in progress! Now the killer will go to any lengths to protect his (or her) identity, and Autumn is clearly in their sights.

Having killed his father's nemesis and gotten away with it, Hilo, Hawai`i Chief Detective Koa Kane is not your ordinary cop. Estranged from his younger brother who has been convicted of multiple crimes, he is not from a typical law enforcement family. Yet, Koa's secret demons fuel his unwavering drive to pursue justice. Never has Koa's motivation been greater than when he learns that an elementary school was placed atop a volcanic vent, which has now exploded. The subsequent murders of the school's contractor and architect only add urgency to his search for the truth.

On Hawaii Island, a volcanic earthquake disrupts an abandoned cemetery—unearthing the body of a woman mutilated by her killer to conceal her identity. The search for her identity leads Hilo Hawaii's Chief Detective Koa Kane to a mysterious defense contractor with a politically connected board of directors. Defying his chief of police, Koa pursues the killer, only to become entangled in an FBI espionage investigation of Deimos, a powerful secret military weapon. Is the FBI telling all it knows—or does it, too, have a duplicitous agenda?

Small town life, big academic egos, corruption, revenge, and Spam musubis! The Musubi Murder is the first campus crime novel set in Hawaii, and the perfect gift for mystery lovers, Hawaii expatriates, disillusioned academics, and anyone who fancies Spam (the meat). Renowned Hawaii-born voice-over artist Nicole Gose brings her spot-on vocal characterizations and impeccable comic timing to this reading.

An action-packed urban fantasy adventure set on the islands of Hawaii! I'm Marcus Aries, and as the duly-appointed guardian of the Hawaiian Islands, I’ve had my share of bad run-ins with the world of the supernatural. I’ve taken on demonic frogs, island witches, lightning wolves, and even battled before the famed night marchers. But not every run-in is a life-and-death struggle that threatens to leave the island in ruins. Step back into the world of Hawaiian urban fantasy with this collection of short stories from author Justin Herzog, starring fan-favorite hero Marcus Aries as he and ...

America stumbles into an election ...brainwashed by China. During an American presidential campaign, a spooky candidate uses mind control to destroy the American economy. Meanwhile in China, a hapless American grad student has just been ditched by his Chinese flame, who takes off for the American West. When the CIA asks our unlucky but intrepid hero to hotfoot it home to investigate the financial collapse, he must overcome feelings of rejection, snide remarks from friends, and assailants who want him dead. He must come home to wake up a nation and bring the malicious malefactors to justice....

Mahu Surfer, the second book in my Mahu Investigations mystery series, sends gay Honolulu homicide detective Kimo Kanapa’aka back to his surfing past. His new boss asks the former competitive surfer to go undercover on Oahu’s North Shore to find the killer of three surfers. The catch: He can't tell any of his family or friends that he has returned to the force, causing him to lie, when he has just come out of the closet and begun to tell the truth about his life. In his return to the North Shore, Kimo discovers trouble in paradise.

A fiery explosion sets a new course for the passengers on a charter boat. Three childhood friends decide to take a break from their stressful business lives. Together with the partners and spouses, they charter a luxury boat and go on a relaxing vacation. Nicholás Santerez watches from his dive shop as an explosion turns their boat into a fiery inferno. Enlisting the aid of his sister, Lucia, and their friends at the C'Mon Inn B&B, they rush to the rescue. A year later, the survivors gather at the C'Mon Inn and they find themselves involved in a surprising investigation into the events of ...

“Easy money,” thought Honolulu private investigator Rick Bishop as he accepted a new client’s request to hold on to a package of documentary evidence for a local mobster’s upcoming trial for a few days. But when a gun-wielding associate of the gangster shows up at Rick’s office demanding the package, things quickly take a dangerous and painful turn. Despite taking a beating, Rick manages to keep the evidence hidden. But he knows he can’t hold on to it for long. He decides to return the package to his client along with the generous retainer, even though he desperately needs the ...

On Hawaii Island, an anonymous 911 caller reports a body at Pohakuloa, the Army's live-fire training area. Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kane, a cop with his own secret criminal past, finds a mutilated corpse - bearing all the hallmarks of ancient ritual sacrifice. He encounters a host of obstacles as he pursues the murderer - an incompetent local medical examiner, hostility from both haoles (Westerners) and sovereignty advocates, and a myriad of lies.

Kali Māhoe, Hawaiian cultural expert and detective with the Maui Police Department, has been called to a bizarre crime scene. In the recesses of a deep trench on Lana'i Island, a derelict refrigerator has been unearthed. Entombed inside are the skeletal remains of someone buried decades ago. Identification is a challenge. The body is headless, the skull replaced with a chilling adornment: a large, ornately carved wooden pineapple.

Matt Drake, broken by the murder of his loved ones, betrayal, and the threat to his friends, sets out to cancel the blood vendetta imposed by the underworld linchpin, the Blood King. Revenge, terrible and personal, drives Drake in his quest to stop the man who has become his nemesis. The mercenary Boudreau, now in the hands of his enemies, sits stone-faced and unflinching as Hayden Jaye desperately tries to extract the information she needs to save the lives of hundreds.

A jigger of tranquility is all Em Johnson wants, but now that her beloved Tiki Goddess Bar has been chosen as the location for Trouble in Paradise, TV’s hot new reality show, life is anything but tranquil. When a member of the camera crew is found dead in her kitchen - stabbed to death with Chef Kimo’s sashimi knife - the scene on the sleepy North Shore of Kauai goes from eccentrically crazy to downright dangerous.

Charles “Chuck” MacKay had quite the career. Or two. From special ops utilizing his forensic accounting skills to an ordinary accountant with ordinary clients throughout Hawaii. All that ends when his wife’s car is found at the bottom of a cliff. Was it an accident, road rage, or murder? If it is someone from Chuck’s not so ordinary past, why was Carol targeted? An ex-military buddy, Bruce Levine, might have answers. Will it take the resources of Bruce’s P.I. firm, Valor Investigations, to get to the bottom of this? Chuck flies to Mapleton, Virginia to take Bruce up on his offer ...

I was in my car when the news came over the radio that Royal Blue was dead. Shocked, the world seemed to stop moving for a while. Once or twice in a lifetime there arises a star the brilliance of Royal Blue. The world would eventually become used to his loss, but like the ripples on a pond, his essence would never really die. The surface of the music world would never again be still. I drove on that day, little knowing that with the passing of years my life would become entangled with the lives of those Royal Blue had loved. Though I didn't yet know the players, they were waiting in my ...

It is World War Two in Honolulu. Jake Rawlins receives full pardon and in return is drafted into the Marines to fight in the South Pacific. His wife, Sadie tries to keep the private investigation business going in Honolulu. A friendly fire incident during the brutal invasion of Peleliu changes everything for Jake. Back in Honolulu, Sadie investigates a Japanese American bent on destroying the Peal Harbor fuel deposit with a stolen bazooka. When Jake returns home to recuperate from his wounds, he joins Sadie's investigation while a Marine officer escapes from Tripler's psychiatric ward with ...

An execution-style murder sends a message. Old cases haunt Maui’s detectives. An external force threatens Pele’s island home. Now partners, Maui PD Detective Sergeants Keone Boyd and Angela Beyers investigate the brutal murder of a local drug pusher. The body is found across the street from Maui PD headquarters, with its tongue cut out and its lips sewn together. For Keone and Angela, the murder stirs echoes of their former cases. In the midst of the investigation, Keone is summoned by his elderly grandmother. In her visions, Pele, the most powerful of the Hawaiian gods, wakes from her ...

A veteran of exploring highly desirable resort sites with mysterious happenings, Carson now flirts with a thriller that involves a remote South Pacific island called AKONA, with hidden dangers and dangerous men. The island's remoteness, its Volcanic terrain, the Akona Princess Resort and a dot-com billionaire's mansion playground all conspire to entangle two young professional women from Seattle in their intrigue. Come away with me and escape to this tropical island paradise. Enjoy the respite and excitement such a virtual holiday can offer! Thank you.

On Kaumaha Island (est 1850), the statue of Amyas Lathrop conceals a terrible secret—a legacy of massacres and madness that infects the island itself. Some will go to any lengths to keep it hidden, others to set it free. But which of them would kill? Cultural expert Winnie Te Papa, our very own Ms. Marple, will sift through the pieces to track a ruthless murderer through a tangled maze of family alliances, greedy developers, scholars, protestors, and gangsters.