Windows To The World

Murder Casts a Shadow: A Hawaiæi Mystery by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It is 1935 in Hawai’i and even though the depression has hit these tropical islands as well the sugar industry has cushioned the effects  of unemployment somewhat.  Honolulu may have not have all the sophistication of a mainland city especially when it comes to the arts but it tries to make up for it with an excellent community theater. London playwright Ned Manusia has come to put his latest play on here and he feels quite at home here because he is of Polynesian extraction himself. He was born in Samoa.

Ned has a second reason for finding himself in Honolulu; he has escorted three important portraits of the Hawaiian Royal Family from the British Museum back to their home. He has done secret commissions for the British Government before. While in Hawai’i he is staying with his old friend Troy Forrest who is the Chief of Detectives for the Honolulu Police and his wife Nyla, who is an interesting blend of Hawaiian, Irish and English.

Shortly after the portraits are delivered the main one of the King Kalåkaua is stolen and a main functionary of the museum   Abe Halpern is murdered. Nyla’s sister Mina Beckwith is a reporter for the local paper who fights against the restrictions that are constantly keeping her from getting good stories. As a woman it seems it is felt she can only do justice to art and social events, but she is onsite for this case and knows she can run with it. She pairs up with Ned to dig into the background of the murder victim.

Abel Halpern was a grandson of one of the original outsider movers and shakers on the island.  There are many rumors about his dirty dealings within the museum, his family, and the city of Honolulu it self as well so his murder comes as no surprise to many. What must be determined was whether this killing was related to the theft of the portrait or incidental to it.

The Hawaiian Islands are the crossroads of the Pacific and people from all over had settled here over the centuries; Japanese, mainland Americans, Chinese, Polynesians and Europeans from many countries.  Kings have ruled Hawai’i  for a few hundred years. The last, King Kalakaua traveled to San Francisco. It while he was there that the portraits were painted then he mysteriously sickened and died.  One of his associates left a mysterious message of the back of the portrait.  Ned and Mina  feel sure the past and the present are coming together and they are risking their lives to prove it..


This book is the first in a series and it was very appealing . The characters and the story made the reader want to know much more about the history of the Hawaiian Islands and the people that are fortunate enough to live there.