Robert McCaw. Off the Grid. Sarasota FL: Oceanview, 2019. Print.

I confess this book got my attention because it is set on one of my favorite places in the world—the “Big Island” of Hawaii. Not that I get to travel that much, but I have been there twice and would not mind visiting again if the situation arose. And because even the Big Island is not all that big, I was familiar with most of the locations and ways people make a living there. The author has owned property on the island for thirty years.

Our main character is Chief Detective Koa Kāne of the Hilo Police. Det. Kāne responds to two homicides on the same day. While the scenes are miles apart, it turns out the victims are a husband and wife who do live literally off the grid in the middle of the island’s rain forest. Both murders were intended to eliminate any trace of the victims: a propellant-initiated auto explosion and a body left in the path of an active volcano’s lava flow.

There is a lot weirdness about this case. The two large tracts of land the couple lived on are owned by offshore corporations, one in Lichtenstein and one in the Cayman Islands. The wife was a small-time artist who had some success selling paintings. Few people on the island had ever seen her husband. They may have been raising orchids, but if they sold any, there were no tax records.

The case gets more involved. The police chief threatens Koa with termination if he continues investigate why the owner of a large ranch would sell those pieces of land to offshore entities at ridiculously low prices. The chief, the mayor, and the ranch owner are all actively supporting a local state senator’s run for governor.

Then a CIA agent comes to inquire about the case. (Koa vouches his identity with the Coast Guard admiral who has worked with both men.) Then the FBI declares the murder of the husband a Federal case. Then two agents representing the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) swoop in with all kinds of threats trying to tell Koa that he will be arrested if he continues his investigation.

Really wild stuff!

Let us just say that when I was in the service I knew a couple of guys who worked for the DIA and became friends with one of them. While their job perhaps makes them a little more suspicious than the average person, this reader could tell that the DIA guys in Off the Grid who came to Hilo were not exactly acting kosher. What were they doing, then?

There is a lot more. A local birder happens to have a recording of the men who apparently caused the car wreck that killed Mrs. Campbell. The birder was trying to record a bird song at the time with a parabolic microphone. It turns out the men were speaking Indonesian and records show they were hired by the same ranch that sold the parcels of land indirectly to the Campbells. The men speak of not doing anything that would get “the captain” mad at them. There is somebody big behind this.

Mrs. Campbell was a native of China who ended up in Belgrade before coming to the United States. Mr. Campbell had enough aliases that it was impossible for the Hilo police to tell what his real name was.

All this tangle gets the reader’s attention. Off the Grid is a page turner that is lots of fun to read. The artifice that captures the mastermind behind the plot is worthy of Sherlock Holmes himself. To say any more might spoil the fun.

Other Koa Kāne mysteries we have reviewed:
Death of a Messenger
Fire and Vengeance
Treachery Times Two
Retribution