Death of a Messenger  by Robert McCaw

Being a police procedural mystery, this story features justice. Have to catch the bad guy, right? And Detective Koa Kãne will not be denied. This is the first of the Koa Kãne Hawaiian Mysteries series. There are currently four books out in the series. And the first one starts the series well.

Overall, it’s a good mystery. What I really liked about it was the setting. Hawaii. And even more than the setting, I appreciated the Hawaiian culture brought into the story. Detective Kãne is a native Hawaiian, so McCaw explores the conflict between Hawaiian natives and non-natives. Much of the book centers around Hawaiian native artifacts. Some of the characters belong to a group dedicated to preserving those artifacts. The murder victim was one of those and he is found in an ancient cave filled with ancient artifacts.

Koa Kãne has the potential to grow into an interesting character. The character depth was okay, but it is book one of the series, so I’d expect McCaw to further flesh him out. I was hoping the epilogue might have some foreshadowing of the next book, but it didn’t. I’ll leave the actual subject for the reader to discover.

As for the mystery, I figured out who the killer was about a third into the book. However, don’t let that dissuade you. I chalk that up more to me also writing mysteries than it being obvious. It wasn’t obvious and McCaw did well in leading the reader down several rabbit trails. This book was a fun, and for me at least, an educational read.

The writing isn’t bestseller yet, but nothing pulled me out of the story. The technical aspect around the police procedures seemed reasonable. And again, nothing pulled me out of the story or caused me to say, “wait a minute.”

There was a fair amount of profanity. No on page sex. Some violence, but it wasn’t over the top. As for the profanity, I’ve written a blog post about what I think of profanity in fiction. I’ll leave it at this. Many writers go for realism. However, if I want realism, I’ll read non-fiction. When I read fiction, I’d prefer to leave reality behind. I’ll rank this one number 6 in the list of what I’ve read this year so far. Definitely the best indie/small publisher read of the year.

1. Rooms by James L. Rubart
2. The First Lady by Ed Gorman
3. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
4. Several Deaths Later by Ed Gorman
5. Citadel (Palladium Wars Book 3) by Marko Kloos
6. Death of a Messenger by Robert McCaw
7. The Little Grave by Carolyn Arnold
8. Barrier Island by John D. MacDonald
9. Jake of All Trades by A.T. Mahon
10. Fireplay by Steve P. Vincent
11. Wrong Place Wrong Time by David P. Perlmutter
12. Nowhere Safe by Kate Bold
13. The Bone Key Curse by Mike Scantlebury
14. Run for Your Life by C.M. Sutter

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