Off the Grid

May 6, 2019
In McCaw’s digressive sequel to 2015’s Death of a Messenger, Chief Det. Koa Kane, a dedicated Hilo, Hawaii, police officer with a shadowy past, arrives at the scene of what at first looks like an accident involving a car and a truck. A scream rends the air. As Koa races toward the burning car, it explodes, killing the woman inside. He’s then called to the northern edge of Volcanoes National Park, where he finds a “shriveled, naked, partially burned corpse” lying in a gap between two lobes of lava rock. He thinks, “The gods must be angry.” Two murders in one day is unheard of in these parts, and Koa believes that the deaths must be related. Soon he’s up to his ears in blackmail schemes, international espionage, and political shenanigans, and has his own police chief and the CIA breathing down his neck. Slices of island history and culture, bursts of volcanology, and descriptions of the island’s lush and singular flora and fauna pad the narrative. Those fascinated by Hawaii will best appreciate this one.

Starred review from July 1, 2019
Readers who crave watching a smart cop work in a crackerjack police procedural will find a beauty here. Want a good espionage adventure? It's here, too, with intrigue, betrayal, assassination. Chief Detective Koa Kane, of the Hilo, Hawaii, police, doesn't take notes during interviews because it discourages "stray comments and slips of the tongue" that can give the game away. He spots the item out of place in a death scene?in this case a belt?that cries out, "Murder!" He looks at immigration applications claiming two Indonesian men are needed for "coffee expertise" and knows it's a lie: Hawaii makes great coffee on its own, thank you. This fraud is the lead-in to the spy story, which is rooted in fact: the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in which the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was hit with U.S.-directed bombs. Author McCaw offers a "could be" explanation that involves incredibly cruel murders, solved by Kane in a masterpiece of detection. Kane experiences a stunning shock when all the disparate pieces come together. Thanks to McCaw's skill, so do we.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)