Murder Casts a Shadow (A Hawai‘i Mystery)
Murder Casts a Shadow by Victoria Kneubuhl
by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl
Murder Casts a Shadow is the debut novel by acclaimed local playwright Victoria Kneubuhl. The work is a “cozy” murder mystery set in prewar Honolulu during the mid-1930s and combines references to food, theater, philately (stamp collecting), along with Hawaiian and Samoan ways of knowing, to create a thoroughly entertaining whodunnit that evokes a colorful bygone era.
The story begins on New Year’s Eve, 1934. While Honolulu celebrates with champagne and fireworks, someone steals the Bishop Museum’s portrait of King Kalākaua and murders its curator. A series of mysterious deaths follows, and an unlikely pair, newspaper reporter Mina Beckwith and visiting playwright Ned Manusia, find themselves investigating a twisted trail of clues in an attempt to recover the painting and uncover the killer. A lively cast of characters aids Mina and Ned in their search for answers: Cecily Chang, an antiques and explosives expert, steers them through Chinatown’s back alleys; Hinano Kahana, a hula chanter and dancer, brings Ned closer to solving an ancient riddle; Mina’s grandmother, Hannah, helps them unlock a secret from the past.
Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl is a well-known Honolulu playwright and author. Her many plays have been performed in Hawai‘i and elsewhere in the Pacific, the continental U.S., Britain, and Asia. An anthology of her work, Hawai‘i Nei: Island Plays, was published in 2002 and she is the recipient of the prestigious Hawai‘i Award for Literature (1994) and the Elliot Cades Award for Literature (2006). Ms. Kneubuhl worked for over twelve years in the field of museum education and has developed many public humanities programs that address historical issues and events in her island communitiy. Along with other projects, she is the writer and co-producer for the television series “Biography Hawaii.”
A Latitude 20 Book, 286 pages
Available at bookstores and libraries or order from UH Press. You can read an excerpt by clicking here.
Tags: Biography Hawaii, Bishop Museum, Cades Award, Kalakaua, Literature, playwright, theater, UH Press, Victoria Kneubuhl
