Retired Honolulu Police Department major Gary A. Dias and Honolulu advertiser reporter Robbie Dingeman provide inside information about some of Oahu's most disturbing crimes.

New Year’s Eve, 1934. While Honolulu celebrates with champagne and fireworks, someone is making away with the Bishop Museum’s portrait of King Kalakaua and its curator. A series of brutal murders follows, and an unlikely pair, newspaper reporter Mina Beckwith and visiting playwright Ned Manusia, find themselves investigating a twisted trail of clues in an attempt to recover the painting and uncover the killer. Honolulu in the 1930s is a unique (and volatile) mix of the provincial and the urban, East and West, islander and mainlander. Mina and Ned, both of Polynesian descent, confront the complexities and contradictions of Island life as their investigation takes them into the heart of Honolulu society and close-knit local families, whose intricate histories and relationships will have a direct impact on future lives and events. A lively cast of characters aids Mina and Ned in their search for answers: Cecily Chang, an antiques and explosives expert, steers them through Chinatown’s back alleys; Hinano Kahana, a hula chanter and dancer, brings Ned closer to solving an ancient riddle; Mina’s grandmother, Hannah, helps them unlock a secret from the past. Prewar Honolulu comes to life in this thoroughly entertaining mystery that evokes a colorful bygone era. The Mina Beckwith and Ned Manusia series continues with Murder Leaves Its Mark, available September 2011.

MURDER IN HONOLULU is an island mystery novel set in Hawaii. Skye Delaney is a private investigator, security consultant, and ex-cop who lives in Waikiki. When her ex-husband and former prosecutor turned businessman, Carter Delaney, asks her to find out if his new wife Darlene is having an affair, Skye reluctantly agrees to take the case. Little does she know that it will turn out to be far more than infidelity. Skye confirms that Darlene is not only having an affair but also doing drugs. But before Skye can tell this to Carter, she finds him dead in her Jacuzzi bathtub with an apparent suicide note stuffed in his mouth. Did he really take his own life with so much to live for? Or was Carter murdered? The one thing she knows for sure is that her German Shepherd Ollie bit an intruder who happened to have AB negative blood. As did Carter. Coincidence? Skye’s current love interest is Ridge Larsen, a homicide detective for the Honolulu Police Department, who also happens to be assigned to this case once it becomes official that Carter Delaney was murdered. As Skye continues to delve deeper and deeper into the investigation of Carter’s death, it becomes apparent to her that her ex had many secrets and just as many enemies, making him a marked man. These included working for the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney as a consultant on a case involving a crime syndicate, being a gambling addict, and being in debt to a loan shark. While the bodies continue to pile up, Skye puts her neck on the line to find out the truth and nail a ruthless killer who has targeted her for death; even as she tries to maintain her professional objectivity and balance it with her private and romantic life.

For thirty years starting in the mid-1970s, the byline of Jim Dooley appeared on riveting investigative stories of organized crime and political corruption that headlined the front page of Honolulu’s morning daily. In Sunny Skies, Shady Characters, James Dooley revisits highlights of his career as a hard-hitting investigative reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser and, in later years, for KITV television and the online Hawaii Reporter. His lively backstories on how he chased these high-profile scandals make fascinating reading, while providing an insider’s look at the business of journalism and the craft of investigative reporting. Dooley’s first assignment as an investigative journalist involved the city housing project of Kukui Plaza, which introduced him to the “pay to play” method of awarding government contracts to obliging consultants. In later stories, he scrutinized bloody struggles over illicit gambling revenue, the murder of a city prosecutor’s son, local syndicate ties to the Teamsters Union, and the dealings of Bishop Estate. His groundbreaking coverage of the forays by yakuza into Hawaii and the continental United States were the first of its kind in American journalism. As Dooley pursued stories from the underside of island society, names of respected public figures and those of violent criminals filled his notebook: entertainer Don Ho, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, Governors George Ariyoshi and Ben Cayetano, Mayor Frank Fasi, and notorious felons Henry Huihui, Nappy Pulawa, and Ronnie Ching. Woven throughout is the name of Big Island rancher Larry Mehau—was he the “godfather of organized crime” in Hawaii as alleged by the FBI, or simply an ex-cop who befriended power brokers in the course of doing business for his security guard firm? The book includes a timeline of Mehau’s activities to allow readers to judge for themselves.

In the fall of 1931, Thalia Massie, the bored, aristocratic wife of a young naval officer stationed in Honolulu, accused six nonwhite islanders of gang rape. The ensuing trial let loose a storm of racial and sexual hysteria, but the case against the suspects was scant and the trial ended in a hung jury. Outraged, Thalia’s socialite mother arranged the kidnapping and murder of one of the suspects. In the spectacularly publicized trial that followed, Clarence Darrow came to Hawai’i to defend Thalia’s mother, a sorry epitaph to a noble career. It is one of the most sensational criminal cases in American history, Stannard has rendered more than a lurid tale. One hundred and fifty years of oppression came to a head in those sweltering courtrooms. In the face of overwhelming intimidation from a cabal of corrupt military leaders and businessmen, various people involved with the case—the judge, the defense team, the jurors, a newspaper editor, and the accused themselves—refused to be cowed. Their moral courage united the disparate elements of the non-white community and galvanized Hawai’i’s rapid transformation from an oppressive white-run oligarchy to the harmonic, multicultural American state it became. Honor Killing is a great true crime story worthy of Dominick Dunne—both a sensational read and an important work of social history

World-class beaches, fragrant frangipani, swaying palms, and hula girls. Most folks think of Hawaii as a vacation destination. Mob-style executions, drug smuggling, and vicious gang warfare are seldom part of the postcard image. Yet, Hawaii was once home to not only Aloha spirit, but also a ruthless, homegrown mafia underworld. From 1960 to 1980, Hawaiian gangsters grew rich off a robust trade in drugs, gambling, and prostitution that followed in the wake of Hawaii’s tourist boom. Thus, by 1980—the year Charles Marsland was elected Honolulu's top prosecutor—the honeymoon island paradise was also plagued by violence, corruption and organized crime. The zeal that Marsland brought to his crusade against the Hawaiian underworld was relentless, self-destructive, and very personal. Five years earlier, Marsland’s son had been gunned down. His efforts to bring his son’s killers to justice—and indeed, eradicate the entire organized criminal element in Hawaii—make for an extraordinary tale that culminates with intense courtroom drama. Hawaii Five-O meets Wiseguy in author Jason Ryan’s vigorously reported chronicle of brazen gangsters, brutal murders, and a father’s quest for vengeance—all set against an unlikely backdrop of seductive tropical beauty.

Jane Stanford, the co-founder of Stanford University, died in Honolulu in 1905, shortly after surviving strychnine poisoning in San Francisco. The inquest testimony of the physicians who attended her death in Hawaii led to a coroner’s jury verdict of murder—by strychnine poisoning. Stanford University President David Starr Jordan promptly issued a press release claiming that Mrs. Stanford had died of heart disease, a claim that he supported by challenging the skills and judgment of the Honolulu physicians and toxicologist. Jordan’s diagnosis was largely accepted and promulgated in many subsequent historical accounts. In this book, the author reviews the medical reports in detail to refute Dr. Jordan’s claim and to show that Mrs. Stanford indeed died of strychnine poisoning. His research reveals that the professionals who were denounced by Dr. Jordan enjoyed honorable and distinguished careers. He concludes that Dr. Jordan went to great lengths, over a period of nearly two decades, to cover up the real circumstances of Mrs. Stanford’s death.

Murder in Hawaii Mysteries 5-Book Bundle contains five full length bestselling suspense thriller novels by bestselling crime writer R. Barri Flowers, including Murder in Maui, Murder in Honolulu, Seduced to Kill in Kauai, Dead in Pukalani, and Murder on Kaanapali Beach. Murder in Maui: A Leila Kahana Mystery is a police procedural medical mystery novel set in the lush, deceptively idyllic tropical paradise of Hawaii. Maui County homicide detective and composite sketch artist Leila Kahana and partner Detective Sergeant Blake Seymour investigate the execution-style murder of two prominent doctors in an upscale condominium. As they interview suspects and collect evidence, more doctors are murdered, making it clear to all that they have a ruthless and determined serial killer on their hands. Murder in Honolulu: A Skye Delaney Mystery is a private investigator crime novel centered on the lush Hawaiian island of Oahu. Ex-cop turned PI and security consultant Skye Delaney investigates the apparent suicide of ex-husband and former prosecutor turned businessman, Carter Delaney, after he had hired her to learn if his new young wife was having an affair. As the bodies continue to pile up, Skye puts her neck on the line to find out the truth and nail a ruthless killer who has targeted her for death. Seduced to Kill in Kauai is a tropical island novel of psychological and erotic suspense and financial intrigue. Pushing forty, Jack Burke was living the good life as a successful advertising executive with a gorgeous wife in Hawaii before, in the blink of an eye, his life began spiraling out of control. Temptation, infidelity, betrayal, deceit, and murder, leaves Jack left wondering if there is any way out. Or will he lose everything, including possibly his life? Dead in Pukalani: An Eddie Naku Maui Mystery is a private eye Hawaii crime novel. Private investigator Eddie Naku is hired by attractive divorcee Kathryn Higuchi to investigate the murder of her sister, Suzette Higuchi-Bordeau, the wife of a well-known criminal defense attorney who was gunned down in a shopping center parking lot in the Upcountry region of Pukalani. What seems like a routine case for the ex-police detective turns into a complex murder mystery as Naku uncovers a web of lies, deceit, arms trafficking, infidelity, seduction, betrayal, and more murders as he tries to solve a deadly crime and avoid becoming a victim. Murder on Kaanapali Beach: A Leila Kahana Mystery is the 2nd book in this popular series. Maui County homicide detective and composite sketch artist Leila Kahana and new partner, Detective Jonny Chung, take on the case of a college instructor, Joyce Yashiro, found murdered on the island's famed Kaanapali Beach. In a seemingly unrelated case, Detectives Rachel Lancaster and Trent Ferguson investigate the execution-style murder of businessman Parker Breslin in front of his Kihei home. While the two murder investigations progress with a myriad of suspects, a surprising connection between the cases and crimes emerges. As the cases move full steam ahead, there is also a brutal serial killer on the loose. Dubbed the "Zip Line Killer," he has been terrorizing women on the island, strangling them with a zip line, for over a year, while staying safely out of reach of the authorities. Can he finally be brought to justice or will he strike again?

"Grips you by the throat from beginning to end."—Cleveland Plain Dealer ALONE WITH HER NEW HUSBAND on a tiny Pacific atoll, a young woman, combing the beach, finds an odd aluminum container washed up out of the lagoon, and beside it on the sand something glitters: a gold tooth in a scorched human skull. The investigation that follows uncovers an extraordinarily complex and puzzling true-crime story. Only Vincent Bugliosi, who recounted his successful prosecution of mass murderer Charles Manson in the bestseller Helter Skelter, was able to draw together the hundreds of conflicting details of the mystery and reconstruct what really happened when four people found hell in a tropical paradise. And the Sea Will Tell reconstructs the events and subsequent trial of a riveting true murder mystery, and probes into the dark heart of a serpentine scenario of death.

The Massie-Kahahawai case of 1931–1932 shook the Territory of Hawai‘i to its very core. Thalia Massie, a young Navy wife, alleged that she had been kidnapped and raped by “some Hawaiian boys” in Waikīkī. A few days later, five young men stood accused of her rape. Mishandling of evidence and contradictory testimony led to a mistrial, but before a second trial could be convened, one of the accused, Horace Ida, was kidnapped and beaten by a group of Navy men and a second, Joseph Kahahawai, lay dead from a gunshot wound. Thalia’s husband, Thomas Massie; her mother, Grace Fortescue; and two Navy men were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter, despite witnesses who saw them kidnap Kahahawai and the later discovery of his body in Massie’s car. Under pressure from Congress and the Navy, territorial governor Lawrence McCully Judd commuted their sentences. After spending only an hour in the governor’s office at ‘Iolani Palace, the four were set free. Local Story is a close examination of how Native Hawaiians, Asian immigrants, and others responded to challenges posed by the military and federal government during the case’s investigation and aftermath. In addition to providing a concise account of events as they unfolded, the book shows how this historical narrative has been told and retold in later decades to affirm a local identity among descendants of working-class Native Hawaiians, Asians, and others—in fact, this understanding of the term “local” in the islands dates from the Massie-Kahahawai case. It looks at the racial and sexual tensions in pre–World War II Hawai‘i that kept local men and white women apart and at the uneasy relationship between federal and military officials and territorial administrators. Lastly, it examines the revival of interest in the case in the last few decades: true crime accounts, a fictionalized TV mini-series, and, most recently, a play and a documentary—all spurring the formation of new collective memories about the Massie-Kahahawai case.