I did the thing they say you’re never supposed to do. I wrote the book I wanted to read — a mystery set in Hawaiʻi.
Not the kind with a cookie-cutter, tropical setting at a glamorous resort full of insta-worthy backgrounds. I wanted a contemporary whodunnit reflecting the Honolulu I remembered from my childhood living on Oʻahu in the late 1980s.
I wanted to hear the lilting cadence of someone born and raised on the islands, taste the foods I learned to love.
Most crime fiction novels set in Hawaiʻi treat it like a vacation backdrop, easily swapped for the Bahamas or Maldives instead of a unique maelstrom of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, and of course, American characters intermingling like the perfect bento box. That is until outside pressures, socio-economic forces, and human nature threaten their world, leading to murder and mayhem.
Locally published books are the exception, but they don’t often get the attention they deserve here on the mainland, so it helps to know Hawaiʻi historical noir novelist Scott Kikkawa.
“Hawaiʻi has a racist and colonial past, and it’s stuff nobody really knows about. The typical visitor might not find it very appealing, but we make no apologies for it,” Kikkawa told me one Sunday morning over Zoom. “This is the home we know, and that’s what we’re going to write about.”
While local crime writers like Kikkawa and Chris McKinney explore the dark side of paradise, there are others such as Leslie Karst and Naomi Hirahara, whose mysteries are on the lighter side but reflect the Hawaiʻi I know and love.
Chris McKinney – Honolulu Noir (Akashic Noir)
Chris McKinney, author of The Tattoo and The Queen of Tears, edited this Akashic Noir anthology, carefully curating brand-new stories by Alan Brennert, Kiana Davenport, Tom Gammarino, Stephanie Han, Scott Kikkawa, B.A. Kobayashi, Chris McKinney, Morgan Miryung McKinney, Christy Passion, Mindy Eun Soo Pennybacker, Michelle Cruz Skinner, Lono Waiwaiʻole, and Don Wallace.
Through multicultural tales of madness, addiction, and murder, these mostly kama‘aina authors — locals who either grew up in Hawaiʻi or now live there — explore the dark underbelly of the Aloha State typically buried by glossy travel brochures. Honolulu Noir also reclaims Chang Apana, making the real-life Native Hawaiian and Chinese police detective a man of action instead of the controversial Charlie Chan character he inspired.
McKinney is a Japanese, Korean, and Scottish American writer who grew up in Kahaluʻu on Oahu. He lives in Honolulu with his wife and two daughters.
Scott Kikkawa – Char Siu (Bamboo Ridge Press)
Scott Kikkawa’s noir series set in 1950s Territorial Hawaiʻi — where cops don’t bring home the bacon, they bring home the char siu — proves paradise can be as flawed and corrupt as Los Angeles.
In his third novel, Char Siu, Kikkawa puts Honolulu homicide detective “Frankie” Hideyuki Yoshikawa in the upstairs lounge of a Chinatown chop suey joint doing dirty work for crooked cops. Violence breaks out, and Frankie, who was just trying to pay for his new mortgage, finds himself entangled in a web of corruption.
“I wanted to portray the darker side of where we live,” Kikkawa said. “I love the narrative style of Chandler and Hammett. It doesn’t sugar coat things, and it’s got great cadence and rhythm. I wanted to do something like that, but with a protagonist that people here were more familiar with.”
Tori Eldridge – Kauaʻi Storm (Thomas & Mercer)
Best-selling author of the Lily Wong thrillers Tori Eldridge takes readers to her native Hawaiʻi for the first time in a brand-new series featuring national park ranger Makalani Pahukula.
Makalani, a ranger in Oregon, is back home on Kauaʻi for her grandmother’s birthday when two of her cousins go missing. A dead body is discovered in the Keālia Forest Reserve, fueling her desperation as she continues the search. Makalani is determined to solve the mystery even as she struggles to reconnect to her people and the home she left behind.
Eldridge was born and raised in Honolulu and draws inspiration for her multicultural characters from her own Chinese, Native Hawaiian and Norwegian heritage.
Kauaʻi Storm releases May 20, 2025.
Leslie Karst – Molten Death (Severn House)
Molten Death marks a few firsts for Leslie Karst, a retired attorney with a culinary degree, who writes humorous mysteries while she and her wife split their time between California and the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.
In this debut Orchid Isle Mystery, retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife are on a much-needed vacation when she sees a leg slowly disappearing into hot lava. Convinced there’s been foul play, Valerie launches her own investigation to find justice for the unknown victim.
Molten Lava is also Karst’s first book featuring a lesbian protagonist and her first set in Hawaiʻi.
Captivated by the active volcanoes that shaped the island’s geology, flora and fauna, not to mention culture, Karst said, “When I set out to write a mystery set on the Big Island, my biggest desire, in addition to of course crafting a compelling story, was to bring to readers a picture of what the place is truly like—not for tourists, but for those who actually live here.”
Waters of Destruction, the second Orchid Isle Mystery, releases April 1, 2025.
Naomi Hirahara – An Eternal Lei (Prospect Park/Turner Publishing)
The Clark and Division author tackles the pandemic, when Hawaiʻi was all but closed to visitors, in her second Leilani Santiago mystery.
Leilani and her sisters rescue a mysterious woman from drowning in Waimea Bay on Kauaʻi. The only clue to her identity is a rare and distinctive lei made from mokihana berries that is traced back to her best friend, Courtney Kahuakai. With her family’s shave ice shop closed for lack of tourists, Leilani investigates the woman’s connections to the island, unearthing deadly secrets.
Eric Redman – Death in Hilo (Crooked Lane Books)
Seattle-based attorney and climate activist Eric Redman was inspired to write his Detective Kawika Wong series after falling in love with the people and history of the Big Island, where he had a home on the South Kohala Coast for 20 years.
Death in Hilo takes place twelve years after the events of Bones of Hilo and has Detective Kawika Wong in line to be the next Honolulu Chief of Police. But an elusive serial killer known as the “Slasher” and a persistent reporter digging into an old case from his Big Island days, threaten his career and life.
Redman, who consults his wife’s Native Hawaiian relatives while writing his novels, is working on his third Kawika Wong book.
***
