How would you describe your protagonist, Detective Koa Kane, in DEATH OF A MESSENGER to readers?
Koa Kāne is a cop with a dark past. As a teenager, he accidentally killed the sugar mill owner who tormented Koa’s father. After Koa covered up the killing as a suicide, Koaʻs remorse and guilt drove him to become a detective and embued him with a powerful empathy for victims and uncanny abilities to pursue criminals. As a native Hawaiian, Koa is also my readers’ window into the unique geography, history, culture, and language of the Hawaiian islands.
There are some ritualistic elements to the crimes in DEATH OF A MESSENGER. What about that attracted you as an author to put something like that in your story?
Hawaii itself is a character in all four of the Koa Kāne mysteries. The human characters interact with and are shaped by the Big Island’s landscape, speak its lyrical language, relate its past, and celebrate its myths. The ritual elements in the crime at the heart of Death of a Messenger provide a mechanism to explore the cultural history of the islands. Thus, the crime scene at the beginning of the book offers a platform for exploring the ancient Hawaiian reverence for the bones of deceased ancestors, lava-tube and canoe burials, the role of stone tools, and pre-western contact religious rites.
The murder victim’s life and demise in DEATH OF A MESSENGER are metaphors for the struggles of the Hawaiian people against western colonial exploitation. The ritual elements of the crime offer insights into the roots of a culture where human sacrifice was common as recently as 300 years ago. These ancient practices put the subsequent parts of the story set in contemporary times in a relative historical context.
How important to your story is the setting of Hawaii? Does it have significance for you personally?
I first went to the Big Island of Hawaii in the 1980s and fell in love with it. As I roamed its varied geography, interacted with its diverse population, and studied its history, culture, and language, I felt compelled to share my love and appreciation for this special place. I ultimately decided to do so through the eyes of a Hawaiian detective in a murder mystery/thriller format.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing academic and legal documents my entire life but started my path to novelist with Death of a Messenger more than 20 years ago. Because of my heavy professional schedule, it took me years to finish this first novel in the Koa Kāne mystery series. There are now three more books in the series OFF THE GRID, FIRE AND VENGEANCE, and TREACHERY TIMES TWO, with a fifth book coming soon.
Other authors I’ve interviewed have said that what they enjoy writing is different from the type of book they enjoy reading. What types of books do you enjoy reading? Favorite books or authors?
I read a wide variety of authors and genres with a healthy dose of mysteries and thrillers. Recent favorites include: Sapiens by Yaval Harari, 1177 B.C. by Eric Cline, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, and The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskins. James Michener, Michael Connelly, and Barry Eisler are perennial favorites.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently completing a fifth Koa Kāne mystery.
DEATH OF A MESSENGER by Robert McCaw
Journey deep into the exotic locales of Hawaii’s Big Island to discover its language, culture – and crime
On Hawaii Island, an anonymous 911 caller reports a body at Pohakuloa, the Army’s live-fire training area. Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kane, a cop with his own secret criminal past, finds a mutilated corpse – bearing all the hallmarks of ancient ritual sacrifice.
He encounters a host of obstacles as he pursues the murderer – an incompetent local medical examiner, hostility from both haoles (Westerners) and sovereignty advocates, and a myriad of lies. Koa races to discover whether the victim stumbled upon a gang of high-tech archaeological thieves, or learned a secret so shocking it cost him his life and put others in mortal danger.
Will Hilo’s most respected detective stop this sadistic fiend – or will the Pohakuloa killer strike again, with even deadlier consequences?
Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and James Lee Burke
Thriller Crime [Oceanview Publishing, On Sale: February 15, 2022, Trade Size / e-Book, ISBN: 9781608094783 / eISBN: 9781608094424]
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About Robert McCaw
Robert McCaw grew up in a military family traveling the world. After graduating from Georgetown University, he served as a lieutenant in the US Army before earning his law degree from the University of Virginia. After law school he spent a year as a judicial clerk for Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black. Thereafter, he was a partner in a major international law firm with offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, representing clients in complex civil and criminal cases. For a number of years, McCaw has maintained a home on the Big Island of Hawaii, studying its history, culture, and people. In researching this book, he consulted with Hawaii County cops and walked the streets, courthouse corridors, and parks where much of this story takes place. Over the past twenty years he has hiked extensively in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and roamed the back roads around nearby Volcano Village, where colorful characters living off the grid abound. Off the Grid is his second Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery. Bob lives with his wife, Calli, who is a photographer, in New York City.
Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery
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