Author: Robert McCaw 

Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
ISBN:978-1-608094-03-

Robert McCaw, author of Death Of A Messenger, graduated from Georgetown University (undergraduate) and the University of Virginia (JD). (2021, inside back cover) He is partner is a law firm with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C.. McCaw’s law specialty is complex civil and criminal cases involving Wall Street crimes. His formative years were spent traveling around the world with his family which was military. He also served in the US Army as a Lieutenant. This is his second book in the Koa Kane detective series.



This book is set in Hawaii. The descriptions of the islands is as if you are actually there with the characters. His characters are a mix of interesting personalities. Detective Koa Kane is obviously the star along with his girlfriend Nalani. While Koa is a textbook detective in every sense he has a dark past that keeps him on the straight and narrow and assists him with solving murders. 

Nalani works at the Alice Observatory which is situated atop Mauna Kea. She has her own set of quirky observatory mates to deal with. One in particular, has hands that rove. She dislikes this and is at the end of her rope, but knows if she confides this to Koa she will lose control because he will take over. 

Detective Koa works for Chief Lannua, with the local medical examiner who is not a regular ME at all, but an Obstretician, Doctor Shizuo Hiro, with the assistants of his skeleton staff, Detective’s Basa and Piki. 

An anonymous 911 call has Koa and Sergeant Basa headed via helicopter to Pohakuloa which Is an Army training facility on the Huma’ula Saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. There are five active volcano’s that create the island of Hawaii. Because of the placement of this murder scene the US Army is working in conjunction with the local Hawaiian Police. Koa gets along well with military types because he is himself a veteran of Somalia, a member of the Special Forces. 

When Koa arrives he finds a corpse that is mangled in what appears to be some type of ritual killing of sorts. He has been found in a lava tube, which is most interesting and unusual. Koa does not believe that Shizuo is up to this kind of murder and asks the Army is they might suggest someone on their side that could take the lead in autopsying this dead man. They agree and provide a forensic medical examiner from the mainland, Doctor Crater. Shizuo takes and instant dislike to this man stepping into his crime scene. 

As the crime scene is processed many people become potential suspects in this slaying. Koa and his team move through them with the ease of a serpent stalking their prey until they are able to connect the dots to the most unlikely of suspects. 

This book is a regular page turner. It is the second book of McCaw’s that I have had the pleasure to read and review. I loved it and believe you will too.