Reviewed By Liz

Today’s featured author is Neil Plakcy. According to Neil, MAHU and MAHU SURFER are police procedurals, though there is as much emphasis on the character’s life as there is on police procedures.

In MAHU SURFER, he’s ready to return to the force and his new boss asks him to go undercover on Oahu’s north shore to catch a gunman who has already killed three surfers. After working so hard to tell the truth about his life to family and friends, he must lie to them about his return to the force in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation. The book also continues his coming-out process.

MAHU: Kimo Kanapa’aka’s world turns upside down in MAHU. At 32, the hero of MāhÅ« has reached the pinnacle of his profession, detective on the Honolulu Police Department’s homicide squad, based at the WaikÄ«kÄ« station. But a difficult murder case, as well as turmoil in his personal life, is about to threaten everything he has worked for.

A life-threatening drug bust in chapter 1 makes Kimo realize that it’s time to stop lying to himself. He’s drawn to the Rod and Reel Club, a gay bar in WaikÄ«kÄ«, where he has a couple of beers and begins the long process of accepting his attraction to other men. Leaving the club, though, he stumbles onto two men dropping a dead body in an alley, and he launches himself into a nightmare where his private life becomes public news. Kimo’s pursuit of this case takes him from the seamy underside of Chinatown to the elegance of million-dollar homes in Maunalani Heights, from gay bars where young men stride naked down runways to bloody crime scenes.

Neil can be found on the internet mahubooks.com. There are links to books, background materials, a dictionary of Hawaiian words, and a list of mysteries featuring gay detectives, among other materials.

If you haven’t signed up for the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge yet, click here for directions. You are welcome to read along on your own, of course, but only registered participants are eligible for the prizes. No matter what your mystery preference - cozy, noir, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, thriller, suspense - we have it on revewiedbyliz this Summer.

If you would like to comment on a book by a featured author or ask them a question, please leave the comment on their daily page so they can find it easily. Comments about what you are reading, books you have finished, requests for readalikes or recommendations, or mystery related links can be made on the SMRC post for that day so we can all see them. Thanks!