Janice Cameron and Lily Wu didn’t get the homecoming they were expecting when they returned home to Hawaii. Janice’s dead father’s files were stolen, her hostess was mysteriously ill, and a kahuna was seen performing the old rites in the native village on the beach. When Janice ventures down to the beach, a native friend from her childhood warns that she is no longer welcome in his village. Ignoring his warnings, Janice sneaks down at night and discovers fresh blood on the ruined altar. Soon after, a sensual native girl dances her last hula. Set in post-World War II Oahu, just outside Honolulu, The Kahuna Killer, first published in 1951, is a remarkably modern detective novel that presents a vivid portrait of a Hawaiian native culture that is fighting to survive. It also features in Lily Wu one of the first female Chinese-American sleuths.

Reviews

“Originally published five decades ago (though it doesn’t feel like it), this detective story featuring the Chinese sleuth Lily Wu has the friends and foster sisters investigating mysterious events—blood on an ancient altar, pagan rites, and the appearance of a kahuna (a witch doctor)—and the death of a sultry hula girl in 1950s Oahu.”
—Publishers Weekly

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