The Kahuna Killer (Rue Morgue Vintage Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: Nostalgic Mystery Set in Post-War Hawaii
Review: Writer Janice Cameron and her foster sister Lily Wu have returned to their home of Honolulu, both with different agendas. Janice has just written a best-selling novel set in Hawaii, and she is working to find a Hawaiian location to film a movie of her novel. Her foster sister Lily is returning to visit her very large extended family, but the reader soon discovers that Lily is also on the trip to keep an eye on her friend Janice.

Janice has been invited to stay in the home of family friends Luther and Maude Avery. The Averys own a large estate near Honolulu, which includes a native Hawaiian village which is the location that Janice would like to use for her movie. Janice must keep her movie-making plans a secret, though, until she gets the Hawaiian villagers to agree. However, immediately upon her arrival in Honolulu, Janice is warned by her native friends that her host's home is a dangerous and unhappy place and she shouldn't stay there. On her second day in Hawaii, Janice discovers the body of a beautiful young hula dancer, apparently a drowning victim in a cove on her host's estate. A series of apparent mishaps gets the attention of amateur detective Lily Wu, who comes to the aid of Janice and identifies who was behind the drowning of the hula dancer.

This was an extremely enjoyable book, and it was hard for me to believe that the book was written more than 50 years ago. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Lily Wu's Chinese family. "The Kahuna Killer" is the second novel in the "Lily Wu quartet", a group of four novels featuring Janice Cameron and Lily Wu. I am very glad to have discovered the Rue Morgue Press, which is publishing a number of "classic" murder mysteries popular during before 1960. This particular edition was a joy to read and well-edited.