Murder at Volcano House

    After a difficult case, the “Surfing Detective” journeys to the remote Volcano House hotel on the Big Island, whose quiet rooms overlooking steaming Kilauea crater afford him the serenity he needs to unwind. But it’s not to be. His first morning there, a frantic woman who recognizes him claims that her husband, a controversial third-party candidate for governor, has been murdered. While taking a sunrise stroll along the crater’s edge, Stan Souza has vanished and his wife wants Kai to investigate. He hikes the crater rim trail in Souza’s footsteps, halting at a gaping steam vent whose sulphurous odor also carries the unmistakable stench of burning human flesh. Only Madame Pele, Hawaiian fire goddess, apparently witnessed his demise.
     Months later, when Big Island police have exhausted their leads and classified the candidate’s death as “accidental,” Mrs. Souza hires Cooke to prove her husband was murdered. The P.I. doesn’t have to scratch deeply beneath the surface of island politics to discover that Souza’s third party candidacy, though he had small hope of winning, threatened rivals in the two major parties, potentially tilting the election to one or the other. Though Kai does not suspect party officials of murder, he certainly does their cronies. To complicate matters, Souza had made other enemies as an outspoken state senator and judge. A half dozen suspects line Kai’s growing list, not the least of which is Madame Pele herself, whose mythical powers are not subject to man-made laws. Did Pele take Stan Souza as a sacrifice? Or was some human agency involved? As Kai discovers, the answer hides in the sulphurous fog of Kilauea crater, and equally foggy atmosphere of island politics.