Fire and Vengeance

Greed and Corruption

A mystery set in Hawaii featuring detective Koa. A detective with a past and a criminal brother takes on an extremely emotional case. An elementary school is built over a Volcanic vent and blows killing fourteen students and two teachers. Detective Koa investigates and finds that the builder’s knew about the fault before the school was built which makes it a murder case.

In his investigations the case takes the detective into the highest reaches of Hawaiian government and the seediest bars. He finds greed, corruption, and misuse of political power everywhere he turns. It seems the suspects are never ending.

As he stretches his investigation he becomes emotional involved in his criminal brother’s case and tries to help his brother at the same time he is investigating the crime he is working on. This is very stressful for him, but he must do what he can to help bring his family back together for his mother.

He will find in investigating is crime evidence suggesting the cover ups and political misuse goes way back over 40 years ago to a college sorority. A lot of twists and turns, corpses and dangerous people in this story. Can Detective Koa solve the case, or will the Governor or the Mayor shut it down? Who is the ringleader and can he be brought to justice?

If you like mysteries and Hawaii you will like this one. It is a good mystery thriller and you will enjoy reading it, I did. I would recommend this book.

Thanks to Robert McCaw, Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy for my honest review.

Liked the story and the setting. Good background amid cultural and social differences. Story keeps you engaged which is all I ask for in a book,

Fire and Vengeance is the third in the Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery Series. I have not read the prior two, yet was not at a disadvantage while reading the third. I will backtrack and pick up the first two volumes in the series.

This is a well-written, complicated crime story with a marvelous sense of place—Hawaii. It involves political scandals, bribes, greed, and fraudulent property developments which evolve into a criminal conspiracy to cover up why an elementary school was built over a fumarole, a volcanic vent. Political transgressions pile on top of each other, and it’s up to policeman Koa Kane to unwind the skein of deceit.

Though building schemes and land transfers don’t sound very interesting, the multiple twisting story lines have enough human elements to keep the reader involved, particularly the relationship between Kane and his younger brother, a criminal, who is facing a long-term prison sentence because of his recidivism.

The torrential rains of Hurricane Ida pour far too much water onto Hualālai Mountain, where it flashes into steam under incredible pressure. One of the volcano’s vents is under KonaWili elementary school, where hundreds of students and teachers are enveloped in yellow sulfuric smoke and white-hot temperatures. As Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kane is helicoptered to the scene, he’s sickened by the sight of so many injured and dead children, or keiki: ”red tags for the critical, and black tags for the dead. Way too many red and black tags.”

A bomb squad robot helps police and firefighters explore the building, where they find inexplicable evidence like a fireproof steel classroom door and a 60-foot-long basement chamber with six-foot-thick concrete walls. The first responders have found visible proof that the building contractor knew the school was situated over a volcanic vent and fruitlessly tried to create barriers against inevitable explosions, for which there are no manmade defenses.

Kane and his rock-solid sergeant, Basa, begin investigating the crime at the express order of Governor Bobbie Mahoe, since the Hilo police chief is in California for surgery. They soon find the building contractor dead, hanging from an electrical cord in his spacious home, and the Micronesian excavator & grader he hired, dying of cancer, confirms that he showed Boyle the active vent. He was given a large bonus to stay quiet, a bonus so large it allowed him to purchase his dirt farm littered with dead bulldozers, rickety houses, and small children. However, he notes sadly, Pele has taken her revenge: his grandson was one of the children who died inside the school.

Not long afterward, the school’s architect, Arthur Witherspoon, is shot dead at point-blank range in his home’s doorway. By that time, it’s clear to Kane and Basu that a massive, murderous cover-up is underway. A well-known developer and a retired county planning official are in the crosshairs, as well as the head of Hawaii’s department of education, but Kane can’t figure out what connects them or prompted their cooperation on such a corrupt project, even as someone takes a shot at the developer in his front yard.

And while Kane is dealing with such a horrific conspiracy, his frequent-felon brother, Ikaika, passes out in the county jail and is taken to the hospital, where doctors find a huge, slow-growing brain tumor that has been affecting his behavior since childhood. Is there an explanation for the immense pain Ikaika has caused his family? Is there a possibility he can be paroled for behavior he couldn’t control?

Kane is clearly facing the most difficult case of his career – the injuries and deaths of so many children, a tightly interwoven group he can’t penetrate but knows they hold the secrets of the KonaWili disaster – while trying to balance the welfare of his family, especially his felonious brother and his quiet but firmly insistent mother, a respected native healer who adheres to the old ways. Robert McCaw has constructed a tightrope of a novel that stretches the nerves of its readers just as periously as a rope across Hualālai’s crater.

Great series … can’t wait to read the other books!

I didn’t realize this was the third in a series when I agreed to review it. It is, and I get the sense that there’s a bit of history to the relationships herein that might have enriched my read by giving the characters more depth and resonance – but I give McCaw tremendous credit for the way he wove the essential bits of backstory into the narrative. It was, without a doubt, one of the most skillful “here’s what you need to know” explanations woven into the story that I’ve seen, and it is what made me keep reading after I realized this one occurred mid-series. (I have a well-established rule that I don’t like to read books out of order; the author writes series books in order on purpose, it seems to me that to ignore that order is to miss out on what the author is trying to get across.)

I started this one and had that immediate “there’s more here than they’re telling me…” feeling, and did a little research to learn this was book three. I almost put it down then and there, but I was intrigued by the way McCaw threw me into the action from the very opening sentences, and so kept going to see if I could read it anyway. In short order I came across his explanatory text, and from there on I felt like I knew enough to keep reading. As I said, I may have missed some of the intricacies, but I never felt lost – that’s something I almost never get to say when I pick up a book mid-series, and is a tremendous credit to McCaw. (And it makes me want to pick up the first two books!)

This is a horrifying tale of greed and entitlement, with the most vulnerable – school children – paying the largest price. It was hard to read at times (most of the victims were in first grade; my daughter also is in first grade), but the writing sucked me in. I haven’t read a lot of books set in Hawaii or focusing on volcanic activity; I found both fascinating, and McCaw’s descriptions intrigued me and held my attention throughout. The characters were a great mix of personalities, quirks, and foibles. Good or bad, they were presented warts and all, and I enjoyed the detail because it really brought the story to life for me.

My only issue was the way things all came together a little quickly – and they did so across the three major conflicts in the story (the school, Koa’s integrity, and Inkaika). Each started as a slow build, but once the revelations came out, things catapulted into action and it felt a little rushed and out of sync with the pacing of the majority of the book. It was a bit runaway train for me, and while I still enjoyed the book, I did occasionally stop while reading to see if I was missing something or if things really were just wrapping up in a bow as they seemed (they were). Still, I was intrigued enough by all of it to look up the earlier titles and would pick up a future installment to see how Koa’s story continues (most especially because I’m dying to see how Inkaika’s tale works itself out)…

Thanks to the publisher and FSB Associates for my obligation-free review copy.