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Rating: 
Summary: Caine is an updated Travis McGee
Review: Another splendid book from Chuck Knief. Like my experience in reading SAND DOLLARS and DIAMOND HEAD, I could not put this book down. It is a gripping, fast-paced thriller. I enjoyed the first third of the book which is set on Oahu, but when we made the virtual run to Kauai, Knief really got cooking. Kauai is the one island (other than Niihau) that I have never been to, but I have now through the magic of EMERALD FLASH. So reading this wonderful book is really a vacation, albeit an exhausting one, in Hawaii. Highly recommended, and I can't wait for the fourth book. Join the fun of reading Chuck Knief's masterful writing in this splendid thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Emerald Flash is every bit as good as Diamond Head.
Review: Chuck Knief has a winner again with Emarald Flash. Great suspense, plot twists, believable characters, and beautiful Hawaiian locales. I read an advance copy and couldn't put it down until I finished it. I have been to many of the locations described in Knief's three books and his descriptions made me feel I was right back at the various locations. I can't wait for the next book by Chuck Knief.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but the two former books were better
Review: Emerald Flash is a recommended read. Make sure you first read the first two books in the series, since there are a lot of references to these in this third book. Out of the three books I think Sand Dollar is the best one. If you like these books you will problaby also like the books by Richard Barre, Steve Hamilton, and William Kent Kreuger.
Rating:
Summary: OVERALL SCORE: (A)
Review: Great suspense, unextected plot twists, vibrant characters, and beautiful Hawaiian locales.
John Caine, is a modern knight righting wrongs and helping those in trouble. An honorable man who as experience so much death and pain that that he is become deeply wounded and seeks to put his life back in order. Unfortunately he meets Margo, and more pain and death are sure to follow.
Charles Knief, brings the Hawaiian islands to life in all of their brilliant color and majesty. The settings in this book and his others capture the real Hawaii that few really get to know.
OVERALL SCORE: (A)
PLOT: (A-), CHARATERS: (A+), DIALOGUE: (B), SETTING: (A+), ACTION/COMBAT: (A-), ANTAGONISTS: (B+), ROMANCE: (A-), SEX:(Adult Content), AGE LEVEL: (R)
Rating:
Summary: Caine is an updated Travis McGee
Review: I've read all 3 John Caine titles, as well as all 21 Travis McGee books, and I see close similarities. I'm going beyond the obvious--the fact that both characters live on boats and do "favors" for friends. Specifically, I'm drawn to Knief's combination of action and introspection, so typical of John D. MacDonald. An illustration can be found early in the first Caine book, Diamond Head, when the older Caine must defend himself against two young attackers. Caine carries the day, but he gives close examination to his reactions and to his motives, once the dust clears. This is typical McGee. And this is the thread which runs through all 3 Caine books. This writer is very, very good, and he's just getting started. I can't wait to see where he'll go next!
Rating: 
Summary: Even when it lacks "aloha spirit," Hawaii is still Paradise.
Review: Let's face it--no one reads a Charles Knief mystery for the excellence of the writing or the tautness of the plot. It's the Hawaiian setting, with its local Polynesian/Hawaiian characters, which is so alluring, and even the violence instigated by its underworld cannot dim that allure. From a marina in Pearl Harbor, to a chase at sea on the way to Kauai, to the top of the Waimea Canyon, with its 500 inches of rain a year, Hawaii sings its siren song, and the reader follows along, not really caring how plausible or tightly controlled the plot may be.In this novel John Caine, private eye and friend alike to Honolulu racketeer Chawlie Choy and Police Lieutenant Kimo Kahanamoku, a relative of the famed surfer, Duke Kahanamoku, saves a naked woman from her enraged husband, who later turns up dead. Fleeing from the Colombian emerald smugglers from whom she has stolen $20M of emeralds, she wants Caine to save her. Between the boat chases and the flights through Kauai's Waimea Canyon rain forest and the Na Pali coast, horrendous mayhem takes place, ranging from grenade attacks to firefights and stabbings along wild pig trails, with perennial hero Caine emerging, of course, very bloody but unbowed. Not the best of the John Caine series, Emerald Flash is still lots of fun, whether you read it to escape into an imaginary Hawaii or to revisit your favorite parts of Paradise.
Rating:
Summary: A PI reader from Nova Scotia
Review: While I enjoyed Knief's previous two John Caine books, I really can't get too exited about this one. The plot has a number of holes in it, particularly the relationship between Chawlie and Margo,and why Caine would want to get involved with this conniving,bossy woman is anybodies guess. Still, there's a lot of action and good use of local color. We could probably do without Caine's talking to that voice in his head all the time, and if you,re going to use the names of real historical people,get it right. The Secretary of the Navy under Truman, who killed himself, was not Vincent Forrestal, it was James Forrestal.
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