Pilikia is My Business

Rating:
Summary: A Hawaiian Adventure
Review: Apparently nobody else out there has thought to use the Hawaiian word for trouble in a book title, because if you type just "pilikia" into the amazon search engine, it takes you straight to this book. And this title does make good use of the word. The story is set in Hawaii, and the protagonist, Val Lyon, is a private investigator who does indeed encounter her fair share (and then some) of pilikia in a day's work.

This particular pilikia begins when a lawyer from a prominent island family hires Val to find the adolescent son of his client, who is being jailed for contempt for failing to produce the boy during a messy custody battle. The mother claims that her ex-husband has abused the boy and that, although she sent him away for his safety, she doesn't know exactly who has him or where he is. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for Val, the mother lets slip the name Harriet, and the hunt is on. Before long, Val finds herself entangled in much more than the search for the missing child. For one thing, people start getting killed, and Val is almost one of them. Then she discovers that the family of the lawyer who hired her has a lot of connections (none of them very pleasant) to the case at hand. It doesn't help any that she also starts falling for her lawyer client.

This is some deep pilikia that Val has to wade out of, but she does so admirably, even if she becomes terribly wounded in the process. One of the most striking things about this book is Val's character, which is complex and intriguing and very realistic. If I didn't know Mark personally, I'd swear he was a woman writing under a male pseudonym, because he has a clear understanding of female characters. The male characters are good, too, but sometimes they seem a little limited by the roles they have to play in the story.

The story line is another of the book's strengths. It is suspenseful and manages to be complex without descending into the sort of confusion that happens when authors just dump cartloads of red herrings wherever they can. Just a tiny bit of what may be a spoiler, however: if you have any more than a passing interest in genetics, you will probably be a few steps ahead of Val once the clues start turning up. That doesn't detract from this great tropical thrill ride, though, and I look forward to reading more of Val's adventures. Before long, I suspect pilikia will be Val's middle name, not just her occupation.

**Adapted from a Skullduggery review**

Rating:
Summary: If you like Dashiell Hammett you like Troy!
Review: Sparse words used wisely with GREAT dialogue, this book is a real page turner. It will satisfy every reader of hard core detective novels. Can't wait to read about what Val will be up to next in Hawaii.

Rating:
Summary: If you like Dashiell Hammett you like Troy!
Review: Sparse words used wisely with GREAT dialogue, this book is a real page turner. It will satisfy every reader of hard core detective novels. Can't wait to read about what Val will be up to next in Hawaii.

Rating:
Summary: Great Private Eye Novel
Review: This is the best Private Eye novel I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it. Great story (kept me up late finishing it). It's set in Hawaii, and the author does a good job of incoprorating Hawaiian culture into the storyline.