From Hawaii’s Big Island to the wilds of Washington’s North Cascades, a novice detective uncovers a hoard of ancient secrets at the heart of a grisly murder.

A young detective from Hilo on the wet, working-class side of Hawaii’s Big Island, Kawika Wong faces a battle to gain the respect of his more seasoned colleagues. And he has a great career opportunity when Ralph Fortunato, the Mainland developer of an unpopular resort in South Kohala on the island’s dry and touristy side, is found murdered on a luxury golf course, an ancient Hawaiian spear driven through his heart. 

With other detectives desperately trying to solve another string of grisly killings, Captain Terry Tanaka sends his half-Hawaiian protégé Kawika to investigate. As Kawika joins forces with his Hawaiian father and girlfriend to read the cultural signs and make sense of the ritualistic murder scene, they uncover a cache of secrets reaching far back into the Island’s ancient past – and well beyond the Island itself. The San Francisco journalist who finds the body has her own attractions for Kawika, and her own theories about Fortunato’s demise – but do they line up with the evidence?

On a perilous journey that stretches from the Big Island to the North Cascades of Washington and back, Kawika and those around him find danger at every turn. He still has much to learn about history and lies, loyalty and betrayal, truth and fiction, race and revenge, and even about Hawaii itself, both old and new. And he’d better learn it fast, because his instincts and skills may not be enough for him to catch a savvy killer who’s determined to catch Kawika first.