Author: Robert McCaw

Publisher: OceanviewPublishing
ISBN: 978-1608093618


Robert McCaw, author of Off The Grid, earned his Bachelors degree from Georgetown University. Afterward he joined the US Army as a Lieutenant. When his service term was up he entered to law school at the University of Virginia obtaining his JD. For a time he worked in a powerful nationwide law firm with offices in Washington DC and New York City. He and his wife live between New York City and Hawaii. 

Off The Grid captures the essence of Island life from the Islander perspective. The main character is Detective Koa. He works for the Hilo Police Department. He along with many second-tier characters create a wonderfully well-developed plot that thickens and twists like the mountain trails along the Blue Ridge Parkway. You never know what might happen at the next fork or turn. 

The book opens with Koa being called to an explosive accident scene that looks less like an accident and more like a murder. Koa along with his cronies and the Fire Department try to piece together what has occurred. Koa sometimes has flashbacks from his days in Mogadishu when things get dicey and this is one of those times. He sees some of his other service members die before his eyes. It wounds him to know that it should have been him and not them, but that is over and done. He works diligently to suppress them and move forward with what is at hand. 

Just as they are looking over the first crime/murder another call comes in that takes Koa and Sargent Basa who is Koa’s second in command and good friend to a grisly spectacle at the Volcano’s National Park. Koa’s girlfriend Nalani is a Ranger there. He thinks back about the first time they met and how he was in love at the first moment. Nalani has had her share of overcoming difficult environments too. As a child her father had been sentenced to time in prison. Her mother was a meth addict who eventually overdosed. She had made something of her life despite those hard knocks. Koa respected that about her. When Koa and Basa arrive at the second scene they see a badly burned body lodged in the molten lava. 

Soon Piki, the youngest detective on the force, is called in to aid them in ferreting out what had happened in both crime investigations. Their coroner Shizuo, who is not much of a coroner because his real work is that of an obstetrician, is called in to determine cause of death. Koa has little faith in his judgment but has no alternative except to use him. They continue to work forward and as they do information leads them to stranger and stranger bedfellows. The two dead people may be somehow tied together, but how? Will Koa and his team find out what happened and who is responsible? 

I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good murder mystery. Add it to your summer must read list now!