Customer Reviews

Murder Casts a Shadow: A Hawaii Mystery (A Latitude 20 Book)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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The characters are charming, and the setting evocative; Victoria Kneubuhl paints a picture of Hawaii in the 1930s when race relations were tense, and the forces that brought down Queen Lili'uokalani and would lead to statehood were already in play. Reminded me of the Lockridges and Nick and Nora Charles.
Neil Plakcy, author of Mahu: A Hawai'ian Mystery (A Kimo Kanapa Mystery)

I saw this book in a small book shop near the Hawaiian Village Hilton when on vacation --- we went on to Maui, but when we returned for our last night before flying out---they were all sold out. One of the first things I did on our return was order this book from Amazon. And was I glad I did.

She creates the Hawaii that was--in ways that I could correlate it with the Hawaii that I saw in 2008. Great insight into her characters, the Hawaiian stage productions, and their sense of history and connection to the royal family.

I highly recomemd this book, and I look forward to the next book based on these characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this first novel by Hawaii resident Victoria Kneubuhl, who is a well-known playwrite in the Hawaiian islands. Her characters were engaging and the mystery was well-crafted. It artfully gave the reader a glimpse into an earlier era of life in Hawaii, and especially what it might have been like to be an ambitious female before it was considered socially acceptable. I hope to see more mysteries from this writer.

This story vividly depicts the Old Hawai'i, a time more of locals than tourists. While today's reader will recognize many of the locations, imagining them some seven decades earlier adds to the mystique of the tale. The author's background in theater brings the behind-the-scenes alive as the story moves from museum to playhouse and back. This is a solid mystery with many potential suspects, especially well done for a first novel. It leaves the reader yearning for more, perhaps a sequel for the characters to continue life in paradise.

This novel is truly a work of art. It's obvious that the author did a great deal of historical research. It was fun to hear about the Hawaii of yesteryear and enjoy hearing of familiar places in the islands. The character development was amazing, drawing me in form the beginning. I would imagine that if you didn't know anything about the Hawaiian language, it might be a slightly frustrating read, but don't let that deter you from being completely entertained and schooled about the subtleties of island culture. I love how there are several story lines to easily follow & how they all get wrapped up into nice endings.

There are many good things in this book. The setting, Hawaii in 1934, is wonderfully depicted. The characters are varied and interesting. The plot ties into Hawaiian history and the American cabal that rode roughshod over the wishes of the Hawaiian people and the Hawaiian monarchy. The plot has a few twists, and the two main protagonists get to island hop in order to solve the mystery. I had a good feeling reading this book about another time, another place.

A few things bothered me, though, and one was Point of View. The author jumps around from Mina's to Ned's point of view, usually in little sections, but sometimes in the same paragraph, which is disconcerting, sort of like a loud, unexpected crash. Because the author has two heroes, there is less drive and less tension. The story doesn't drive toward a conclusion, it kind of ambles toward the conclusion from a couple of different directions. And in regard to the solution of the mystery, I never find it satisfying when the "answer" comes to somebody in a dream or a vision.

The author also did not verify slang expressions from the 1930s. She has one character tell another to not "get bent out of shape." Reading this in a 1930s setting startled me, so I checked a very good slang dictionary, which listed that particular idiom as entering American English after the year 1950.

This novel's strongest features are the setting and the characters. If you like mysteries and like Hawaii, I suggest that you read Murder Casts a Shadow.