Retribution

 By Robert McCaw

Oceanview     2023

336 pages     Mystery

Retribution is the third Chief Detective Koa Kane novel I have read by Robert McCaw. All the novels take place in Hilo on the big Island of Hawaii, and all are police procedurals. What makes Retribution such a unique experience is the setting and the unique names of the characters. Most all of the main characters are native Hawaiians. This lends both charm and confusion, because few of the names are easy to remember.

Koa Kane is the Chief Detective of the Hilo police department. Although he is well-respected in the department and by the city prosecutors, he has a secret criminal past and a younger brother Ikaika, who has a troublesome past that is well known. Surgery on tumors in Ikaika’s brain has turned his mental health around, and he has been doing very well, much to his brother’s relief. Imagine Koa’s surprise when a young man is found dead in an alley with a knife recovered beside the body covered in Ikaika’s fingerprints. And that’s only the beginning.

It begins to appear that Koa is the real target of a series of crimes with several bodies piling up—all connected in some way to Koa. Most insidiously, Koa’s girlfriend, Natani, is the intended victim of a car bombing, which kills her co-worker and best friend, who had the misfortune to be driving Natani’s car. Additionally, Koa is having to contend with a new Assistant Chief Detective, Moreau, who thinks he knows it all when in actuality, he knows nothing. There’s something off about Moreau, and Koa begins to think that Moreau’s connection to Hilo’s mayor may have some significance. The reader begins to distrust Moreau as well.

Koa continues to impress the reader with his integrity, his foresight, and his intuition. It is his intuition that helps him realize that the fingerprints on the murder weapon are false, even though fingerprints are supposed to be foolproof evidence. He quickly sees the connection to all the murders and bombings, and also is able to move quickly when he is just given a couple of clues. Thus, the plot of Retribution seems to move quickly, and I turned pages quickly—or flipped the screen quickly, since I was reading it on a Kindle.

Again, Hawaii is a major character in the novel, and McCaw does a great job of helping us visualize this remarkable setting. We learn a bit about scientists searching for turtles and the technology they use in their search. We learn about the volcanic activity and how some Hawaiian roads are constantly having to be cleared of rubble. We also learn that native Hawaiian narcotic drinks are much better than beer, even though the beer may be local.

I think that I enjoyed Retribution the most of all the McCaw novels I have read, and I believe this is because the plot moves quickly and Koa Kane moves just as quickly to get to the heart of the situation. There is less back story to wade through, and that contributes to the pace of the book. Several reviewers complained about the incorporation of Hawaiian slang. One said, “Although I suspect this was done not only to add realism but to show respect for Indigenous Hawaiians, it seems excessive here.” Actually, I got a kick out of the slang and tried to figure out how to pronounce it. Prior to reading Retribution, all I could pronounce was Aloha.

The other books that I have read are Off the Grid and Fire and Vengeance.  His books do not need to be read in order. Robert McCaw’s website. Retribution is released today. So glad the publicist gave me the opportunity to read it.

 

Fire and Vengeance

By Robert McCaw

Oceanview     2020

336 pages     Mystery

Chief Inspector Koa Kāne is called to a horrific scene. An elementary school built just the previous year on the site of an inactive volcano vent on the island of Hawaii has exploded, killing and injuring everyone in the school. As they investigate, he and his junior detective Piki discover that the contractors, architect, and others involved knew that the construction was dangerously and inadequately built, but they had proceeded anyway. Then, to add to the mystery, the contractor and architect are both murdered. What is going on here?

In my review of McCaw’s second Koa Kāne mystery, Off the Grid, I complained that McCaw spent way too much time bringing the reader up to date on Kāne’s backstory and the plot line of the first book, Death of a Messenger. I think that the author has done a much better job this time of reminding the reader about Koa’s pursuit for justice, laced, as it is, with his guilt and his past. We face this specifically when he does what he can for his imprisoned brother who has a brain tumor. All of this is a complicated mess that he has to face and attempt to solve.

We are continually reminded of the role greed, corruption, and government interference have in public works as Kāne plods his way through the case. Kāne is a genuinely good man, and the reader is constantly reminded of his integrity—even as he faces his greatest guilty secret. The final lines of the book do not give away any of the plot, but speak to the man’s integrity. “He would never escape the guilt he felt for what he had done, but in the tangled world of human behavior, his guilt had once again driven him to find justice, not just for the keiki (children) and kumu (staff) of KonaWili (the elementary school) but for his brother, mother, family, and kupuna, his ancestors."

The other major thing I like about this series is the setting. Lots of illusions to Hawaiian culture, food, sites, as well as information about the volcanoes that continue to threaten the islands. Fire and Vengeance is a compulsive, satisfying adventure.

Here is Robert McCaw’s website.  His life story is as fascinating as his novels.

Moloka'i

By Alan Brennert

New York, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2003

389 p.    Fiction

Moloka’i is a three-tiered novel. First of all, it is the story of Rachel, who as a young girl was sent to the island of Moloka’i in the Hawaiian Islands. She had contracted leprosy, to which apparently the native Hawaiians were particularly susceptible. The leper colony for Hawaii was at Kalaupapa, one of the most remote spots in the Hawaiian Islands. Separated from her family in the most heart-wrenching way, Rachel spends most of the rest of her life at Kalaupapa; she marries there, works there, dies there. 

The second level of Moloka'i is the history of the islands of Hawaii, which begins when the American forces depose the King and Queen in Honolulu and ends just short of statehood. Father Damien began the leper colony in the 1870s, and now the area is a National Historical Park. The story of Rachel at the leper colony forms the background for the history—the death of Father Damien, US government rule, electricity, automobiles, airplanes, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese internment.

The third level is the story of leprosy from the days that it was a scourge and a death sentence to the time it became a treatable disease brought into remission by modern drugs. The name of the disease was even changed to Hanson’s Disease. Although the symptoms seem to be similar, there is some debate as to whether the leprosy of the Bible is the same as what is called Hanson’s Disease now. It is interesting to see how Rachel’s disease is treated when little is known about the disease and then how it is treated when antibiotics become available. The situation is reminiscent of 30 years ago when AIDS first came on the scene. 

At its core, Moloka'i is a story of societal pressures, of friendship and love, and especially a story of resilience. The nun, Sister Catherine, who becomes Rachel’s closest friend and a substitute for her family, sums up the theme of the book. She says: “I used to wonder, why did God give children leprosy? Now I believe God doesn’t give anyone leprosy. He gives us, if we choose to use it, the spirit to live with leprosy, and with the imminence of death. Because it is in our own mortality that we are most Divine.”

I really didn’t want to read about leprosy—about sores and lost fingers and death—but it was the book club’s choice for August. I did find out a lot and appreciated the lessons the book taught. I particularly appreciated how a community could be built out of nothing but a common disease. It made me want to know more about leprosy and Moloka’i. One reviewer has this to say about Moloka'i: “Brennert's compassion makes Rachel a memorable character, and his smooth storytelling vividly brings early 20th-century Hawaii to life. Leprosy may seem a macabre subject, but Brennert transforms the material into a touching, lovely account of a woman's journey as she rises above the limitations of a devastating illness.”

If I have any complaint about the book, it is that the history lessons are a bit heavy-handed. It is sort of like…”OK. Let me throw in a history lesson about Hawaii now.” When I look at pictures of the island, I see a paradise, and that is the irony of the book. These seriously ill and dying people were exiled on a spot which is now considered to be one of the beautiful spots on earth. 

Here is a website that discusses the difference between Biblical leprosy and Hanson’s disease: http://christianthinktank.com/leprosy.html

This is the National Park Service Kalaupapa website and the history of the Kalaupapa settlement: http://www.nps.gov/kala/historyculture/history1.htm

Alan Brennert’s website: http://www.alanbrennert.com/