Our guest blogger today is mystery/crime fiction writer and Oahu resident Deborah Atkinson.

A recipient of the University of Hawaii’s Meryl Clark Award for Fiction, she is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the author of Primitive Secrets (2002), The Green Room (2005), and Fire Prayer (2007).

Debby’s latest novel is Pleasing the Dead. I asked her to share her thoughts about romance and mystery. Welcome, Debby!

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Murder Casts a Shadow by Victoria Kneubuhl by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl Murder Casts a Shadow is the debut novel by acclaimed local [...]
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Be taken on an unforgettable journey of suspense, adventure, mystery and romance in a coming-of-age story about the small town of Kailua, O'ahu in November/December 1941.  Sands of Lanikai takes us back to the days just before December 7 and imagines a spy entering the waters of Kailua Bay.  Will [...]
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Death on Diamond Head is a riveting murder mystery written by long-time Hawai‘i law enforcement officer John Madinger. The fast-paced novel introduces the character of Honolulu police detective Kimo Rigg, a veteran cop whose career has been sidetracked by a whistleblower lawsuit.

In Death on Diamond Head, Madinger’s first novel, Kimo Rigg has been relegated to the Unsolved Crimes department in the bowels of the precinct headquarters. He is trying to stay out of trouble when he finds himself in hot water once again: A murder victim’s body is dumped almost on the doorstep of his new house at Diamond Head.

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Honolulu Cop is real, but plenty of novelists have decided there’s no better place for a crime than Hawai’i. Here’s a list of mysteries, both old and new, set in our islands. List courtesy of www.LeftCoastCrime.org and Kane’ohe librarian Cindy Chow.

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Humble Honest Men is a comic novel from Hawai‘i author-historian Bob Dye. A dozen years in the writing, Dye’s new book tells the story of Kapala Dolan, a Hawai‘i native who moves to Kinsale, Ireland, and soon becomes embroiled in the historical controversy surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania and her mysterious cargo.

Dolan’s fascination with the Irish half of his hapa haole ancestry—and the family lore that placed his maternal grandparents on the Lusitania as it sank off the coast of Kinsale—leads him to jump at the chance to consult for the town whose city fathers seek to make the Lusitania as successful a tourist attraction as Pearl Harbor’s Arizona Memorial. The job proves to be more than a simple consultancy, as Dolan is drawn deeper into intrigue and cultural conflicts, while his sincere intentions rub some of the townspeople the wrong way.

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A fast-moving story, this second book in Michael Herr's Kohala Coast Mystery/Thriller series takes the reader from Decatur Street in New Orleans, to Kauai and then on to the Big Island. Wrapped together in this suspenseful thriller are a serial killer with a special fondness for older women, an ex [...]
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Most people believe that Captain Cook "discovered" the Hawaiian islands. But what about the native Hawaiians, weren't they the true "discoverers". In this third book of his Kohala Coast Mystery/Thriller series a Chinese archeologist seeks proof that his people arrived in Hawaii long before Captain [...]
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In his first Kohala Coast Mystery/Thriller Michael Herr begins the story of the Pono Family. For generations the women of the Pono Family have guarded the secret hiding place of the iwi, the bones, of Queen Ka'ahumanu. The Queen was the favorite wife of King Kamehameha, but never conceived. Her rem [...]
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