Author: Robert McCaw

Publisher: OceanviewPublishing
ISBN:  978-1-60809-368-7


Robert McCaw, author of Fire And Vengeance, is a graduate of Georgetown University (undergrad) and University of Virginia (JD). (2020, back cover) He grew up in a military family and became an Army Lieutenant. He lived on the Big Island for nearly twenty years. McCaw’s legal practice leaned toward representing Wall Street clients in civil and criminal matters. He resides in New York City with his wife.




There are a few regular characters in this book that come from McCaw’s series using Koa Kane, a detective hailing from Hilo Hawaii and his lady love, Nalani. A few other main characters pertinent to this tale are Mayor George Tanaka, Detective’s Piki and Basa, Governor Mahoe, Chief Lannua, and Koa’s family. 

The story opens with a schoolhouse tragedy. A volcano has erupted in a school. Fire, heavy smoke and heat from the expelled lava has made locating the children who had not escaped from the school a tedious, dangerous and heart-wrenching process. In the end there are fourteen dead. As the families and police begin to piece things together it become abundantly clear that the school was erected upon a vent in an active volcano. But why would anyone in their right mind build a school directly over a volcanic vent? 

The families are eager to place the deaths of their children and teachers on someone, but who? The Mayor wants to maintain control of the investigation. The Governor wants to send his own team in, but decides to leave Detective Koa taking the point while they ferret things out. Koa is somewhat uncomfortable with this post, but endeavors to do his best to follow the clues to their logical ends. 

Koa, Basa, and Piki begin to interview the development company and the owners of the property prior to its sale to them. The deeper they dig the more it appears that top officials across Hawaii may have had knowledge of this situation and allow it to proceed unfettered. Why?

During the investigation several key investors in the development are murdered, some are made to look like suicides, but Koa and his team feel that was all set up like a movie to lead them away from the perps. Everything feels wrong. As they continue to put things into perspective another older suicide at the University of Hawaii leads them to believe that the same people responsible for that murder are behind the school disaster and these murder-suicides of key development investors. 

In the thick of this investigation Koa’s younger brother, who has led a criminal life and been in jail was in direct contrast to Koa, takes ill and falls into a coma. They learn he has a couple of brain tumors and he is rushed into surgery in California. Koa has been tough on his brother because of the bad choices he has continually made, but he feels guilty and helpless now that his life may be in peril. What will happen to Koa’s brother?

This story kept my attention and I loved getting to know the characters. It was fast paced with lots of twists and turns in the plot. Read it. Enjoy it. I did.