Saving Paradise. Mike
Bond. Mandevilla
Press. November 2013. 302 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781627040013.
Pono
Hawkins is a Special Forces veteran of Afghanistan who has seen too much war
and too much mindless brutality. He’s a
guy who seems programmed to correct wrongs when he sees them. That hasn’t always been a wise thing to do;
in fact it also earned him some prison time both inside and outside the
military. So he spends his days surfing
and relishing every moment of this land, Hawaii, he loves so, so
intensely! He also teaches other vets
how to surf, a form of therapy that takes them into a healing space they
desperately need after having served in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past
decade and more. He makes some money because of his surfing dog, Mojo. That’s
all about to come to a squeaking halt!
Pono
hates the tourist areas of Honolulu as well as the way the “haoles” or white
Americans and Europeans have raped the land of Hawaii, imprisoned its native
people in back-breaking labor for little pay, and taken their land for the sake
of profit or “big business.” That
intense dislike quickly increases when Pono finds a dead woman on the edge of
the surf not far from a well-known hotel.
Now, because of his criminal record, he’s not exactly getting much
information from the local police. Add
to the mystery that a coroner’s report that initially said the victim died from
drowning in a rather unique way, considering where she was found, has now been
retracted. Anyone with a connection to
the police is mum about this serious retraction of significant evidence. Pono
can’t let go; he becomes fanatic about finding the real killer.
Wind-powered
is supposed to be one of the natural resources that can lead to the creation of
energy. It’s supposed to be one of the
“green” energy forms that people can feel good about using. However, it turns out that it’s not so green
and leaves behind enough side effects that are inhospitable to this already
depleted earth to sink a ship It also
costs a fortune to set up but not because the wind costs money to transform
into energy; it turns out that politicians and business executors are in the
loop for the profits and if it means the displacement of Hawaiian natives, not
a great loss – so be it! The reader also
gets a bit of an education about the pros and cons of this latest
energy-producing fad! Add a gang to the creep list and some women about whom
the reader will wind up mentally quibbling since they seem innocent yet know
quite a bit about the murdered journalist, Sylvia Gordon.
Pono
moves to the top of the hit list due to his continuous inquiries and his
insistence on using the enemies’ employees as sources or connections. Just when it seems that there’s hardly
anything left to plunder in Hawaii, a group of greedy entrepreneurs will stop
short of nothing, including murder, to make sure their Wind-Powered Energy
project succeeds. But they fail to
understand the passionate love the native Hawaiians have for their land and the
determination they have to make sure this energy nightmare never happens.
Intense clashes will arise in different ways that turn into a real nail-biter
thriller.
Mike
Bond knows Hawaii and human nature just as well. So it’s the heavy-hitters
against a Special Forces Vet – quite the challenge!
Saving Paradise is one heck of a crime novel/thriller and
highly recommended! It’s a keeper!
