FIRE AND VENGEANCE

Who’s responsible for the elementary school explosion, and why are persons of interest turning up dead?

On the big island of Hawai’i, Chief Detective Koa Kāne rushes to the KonaWili School in response to reports of disaster in the wake of Hurricane Ida. An explosion has destroyed the structure, killing or injuring everyone inside. Koa learns that the school was heedlessly built upon a volcanic vault, and with improper concrete walls to boot. The builders must have known that the construction was reckless, but who’s ultimately responsible? Righteous Koa decides to confront the general contractor, Hank Boyle, before going to the mayor and governor. He and junior detective Piki break down the door at Boyle’s home to find his corpse hanging from the ceiling by an electrical cord.  Though the scene’s been staged to look like a suicide, Koa notices details that indicate murder. A meeting with the mayor and other politicos is unsatisfying because they act more interested in closure than in justice. In the meantime, the clock is ticking, for those responsible for the KonaWili disaster are wasting no time in covering their tracks. The pressure on Koa increases with the news that his brother Ikaika, currently in prison, must undergo surgery for a brain tumor. Then Koa gets an urgent call from Piki telling him that Arthur Witherspoon, the architect on the school project, has been brazenly shot to death in his home while his wife was upstairs. Can the ruthless killer be stopped before the body count rises further?

McCaw’s third spices its by-the-numbers plot with interesting local details and a crackling pace.