But he's also a murderer. As a teenager, his dad worked for a brutal sugar plantation owner who was merciless toward his employees. After one particularly thorough beating of his father, Koa tracked the sugar baron to his cabin hideaway far into the jungle, attacked, and killed the man. Then staged the scene to look like a suicide and left the body to the wild boars and other jungle critters. Couple weeks later, some hikers stumbled on the remote scene and the coroner ruled it a suicide. Case closed. Keeping that secret buried is almost a daily task for Koa.
So much for the backstory. One of the island's volcanoes awakens. And with the ash and lava come localized earthquakes. One particular tremor rocks a nearby cemetery. Amid the fallen tombstones, the quake also unearths a shallow grave with the body of a recently deceased woman.
First job is to ID the corpse. Next, start backtracking the life of Tiger Baldwin. She worked for the island-based defense contractor X-CO. A highly secretive outfit that specializes in communication coding and security. The tech is the brainchild of a man named Wingate. Koa is told she was a secretary. But further digging reveals that Baldwin was also an adjunct faculty at the local branch of the U of Hawaii in the computer science program. Taught seminars in encryption. And her bank records suggest her income was considerably more than a secretary might earn.
X-CO records show that Baldwin abruptly resigned a few weeks ago to attend to urgent personal issues on the mainland. And that she'd emailed Snelling, the head of X-CO security, to clear out her apartment for storage and to sell her car. About this time, a DOD lawyer, accompanied by a few FBI agents, show up to look into some irregularities in how X-CO acts on its defense contracts. The lead agent and Koa immediately eye each other less as colleagues and more as adversaries - sort of like a couple of junkyard dogs separated by chain link fencing.
And to make things worse, the senior senator from Hawaii has taken a shine to the grandson of the sugar baron Koa killed 30+ years ago. Seems that the grandson can't abide with the history behind his grandfather's suicide and has come to do his own investigation.
The X-CO investigation swings back and forth between two or three potential saboteurs before the DOD lawyer finally reveals that they are less concerned about contract issues and more about a potential traitor who has been receiving damaging code for the X-CO product while also funneling top secret tech to the Chinese.
McCaw addresses two overarching issues and how two characters manage each issue. One issue has to do with our flaws. Koa has that murder and the traitor sold out his country. The other issue addresses an inbred fear of being exposed - how we hide our past. To the traitor, guilt is a foreign emotion; any and all actions are easily rationalized. To Koa, his guilt rests quietly on his shoulder only to spring to the forefront when secrets might be revealed.
This is the 4th Koa Kane Mystery and I think I've read them all. McCaw is an attorney who draws on his own experiences with upholding the law to weave a complex, convoluted and entirely believable investigation for the reader to follow. Not to mention, it comes from Oceanview Publishing that is quickly becoming my 2nd favorite publisher.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. Just released, but should now be available now for electronic or print purchase. The four books are standalones. Reading them in order helps, but isn't necessary.
East Coast Don
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