Surfing Detective Sampler (Surfing Detective Mystery Series)

Here are selections from six Surfing Detective mysteries. These include the opening chapters of Kai Cooke’s most recent case, MURDER AT VOLCANO HOUSE, the complete sketch of his first case, THE DEADBEAT DAD, and also MURDER ON MOLOKA’I, WIPEOUT!, KULA, and HANGING TEN IN PARIS. Together these six selections give readers an overview of the series and offer enough of each book to introduce the main characters, the case, and Kai’s approaching to solving it. Surfing Detective Sampler, in other words, provides a tasting menu of sorts—a way to try each mystery without expanding the waistline or breaking the bank. Bon appetite!

In the sketch THE DEADBEAT DAD Kai goes overboard serving papers on a delinquent father living with his underage girlfriend on a borrowed boat. In MURDER ON MOLOKA’I Kai takes on a notorious trust that stops at nothing to carve a resort out of conservation land sacred to Hawaiians. In WIPEOUT! he investigates the suspicious death of a big wave rider at Waimea Bay. In KULA he tracks the missing golden retriever—a famous surfing dog—of a shadowy radio pitchman. In the novelette HANGING TEN IN PARIS Kai probes the apparent suicide of a Hawai‘i surfer and exchange student in the City of Light. And in MURDER AT VOLCANO HOUSE he looks into the death of a former geothermal exec boiled alive in a volcanic steam vent on the Big Island.

With this sampler readers get to know Kai Cooke, a.k.a., the Surfing Detective. A licensed private investigator in the state of Hawai‘i, Kai stands six feet-even in sandals, khakis, and aloha shirt, and has sun-bleached hair. His shoulders are broad from surfing and his chest bears sixteen pink welts left by a tiger shark. In his tiny office above a lei shop on Maunakea Street in Chinatown, his filing cabinet displays a tarnished trophy of his faded glory: “Third Place–Classic Longboard—Mākaha.”

Yet the stereotype of the dimwitted, inarticulate wave-riding dude couldn’t be further from Kai’s character. Surfing actually helps him solve cases: “Sherlock Holmes had his pipe,” he tells us, “I have my surfboard. Floating on the glassy sea I drift into a kind of trance and can disentangle the most intricate web.” He rarely resorts to strong-arm tactics, preferring instead the more contemplative style of the soul-surfer. He is an idealist who looks for the best in people and a realist who is prepared for the worst. And for the worst of the worst, he holds in reserve his Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.

Along with Kai, a cast of ongoing characters reflects the diverse population of the Hawaiian Islands: Feisty ex-K9 cop, pet detective, and high school crush, Maile Barnes assists Kai in rescuing the famous surfing dog, Kula, and becomes an on-again-off-again love interest; Tommy Woo, attorney and jazz piano virtuoso amuses Kai with his off-color jokes and often has his back; Mrs. Fujiyama rents him office space above her lei shop and offers motherly advice; Cousin Alika Keahola, big-wave riding master, teaches Kai about surfing and life Hawaiian-style. And Kula, the golden retriever the PI and Maile rescued, becomes Kai’s most faithful surfing buddy.

Enjoy this taste of the Surfing Detective series. Again, Bon appetite!