Leilani Santiago is back in her birthplace, the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, to help keep afloat the family business, a shave ice shack. When she goes to work one morning, she stumbles across a dead body, a young pro surfer who was being coached by her estranged father. As her father soon becomes the No. 1 murder suspect, Leilani must find the real killer and somehow safeguard her ill mother, … little sisters, and grandmother while also preserving a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend in Seattle.
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“Iced in Paradise” is an interesting mystery set on the even more interesting Hawaiian island of Kaua‘I, a very little island with population close to 70,000 people, if you didn’t count the tourists. Leilani Santiago has returned to Kaua‘I to work in the family business “Santiago Shave Ice.” In a first person narrative, she shares her thoughts about Seattle and the things and people she left behind. She also talks about her love of home, her devotion to family, and the healing power of the sea.
The narrative is driven by conversations in the unique vernacular of the islands, a mash-up of Pidgin, Hawaiian, and Japanese. Characters use “code switching,” changing from one dialect or language to another, and there is a convenient “translation” index in the back of the book.
Readers get to know Leilani well by what she says to people and what people say to her. She also talks to herself, analyzes actions, and second guesses events. The narrative is casual and friendly, as if she is talking to a friend, and progresses at a slow but deliberate pace as things happen. She juggles her family, the police, real estate developers, a potential new boyfriend on Kaua‘I, and her old boyfriend from Seattle.
The narrative is also filled with interesting and vivid descriptions of the people and places.
“She comes out with her hair down and dripping with water, looking like an angry troll who just survived a drowning. Her blond, wavy hair is shaped like a tangle of dried seaweed.”
“As the uniformed officers descend on the beach, they remind me of black ants seeking their next piece of sustenance. My father, a juicy morsel.”
“Iced in Paradise” is quick to read and is filled with culture, beauty, and mystery. I received a review copy of “Iced in Paradise” from Naomi Hirahara and Prospect Park Books. It gives readers a tiny taste of culture and beauty along with a mystery.
Leilani Santiago has returned from Seattle to the island of Kauai to help run her family’s shave ice shack. Unfortunately, that means dealing with family dynamics, including her estranged father. He’s returned now with Luke, his newest surfing protégé, for a local competition. The morning of the competition, Leilani finds Luke dead on the floor of the shave ice shack. With her father as the prime suspect, Leilani begins to investigate. Can she find the truth?
This book is written in first person present tense, which took a couple of chapters to get used to, but once I did, I had no trouble getting lost in the story. The mystery with strong with plenty of suspects, yet things make sense when Leilani finds the truth. Like other books Naomi Hirahara has written, family dynamics are also a strong storyline, and they weave in and out without taking over from the mystery. This helps us get to know the characters, and I grew to love them as I read. I did struggle with the Pigeon English the characters speak; at times it really slowed me down as I worked to translate what they were saying. But that was my only complaint. The book left me feeling like I’d visited Kauai but craving shave ice.
Iced in Paradise proves why Edgar-winning author Naomi Hirahara is among today’s best traditional mystery writers. She magically intersperses Hawaiian culture with an intriguing murder mystery. It’s a good thing this is a planned series because you’ll want to spend lots of time with Leila Santiago and in her family’s shave ice store. The next best thing to actually going to Hawai’i.
Hirahara pens an excellent ice-cold murder mystery in Iced in Paradise, her first book in the new Leilani Santiago series. As always, Hirahara does an excellent job of infusing interesting historical and contemporary details into her story. I particularly like the insider’s perspective on living in the Islands as opposed to the typical Mainlander view. All the characters in the novel are strong and unique. Leilani, the protagonist, is very feisty and definitely not a pliable young woman, but I like her bravery and tenacity in searching for the brutal truth. I also appreciated how she didn’t have life figured out already and had realistic dilemmas revolving around romantic relationships, job choices, and even family ties.
A great start to a new unique mystery series; a literary treat as delicious as a bowl of cool shave ice.
In Iced in Paradise, we are introduced to Leilani Santiago, a refreshing millennial heroine full of wit, sass, and (as much as she may try to hide it) heart. I tore through this book, delighting in the authenticity of the setting as much as the nuanced cast of characters. Naomi Hirahara has once again crafted a complex mystery steeped in culture that readers will adore.
A delicious multicultural mystery with an instantly lovable heroine, lively family dynamics, and a vivid sense of place. I inhaled it like my favorite shave (not shaved!) ice!