Robert McCaw. Retribution. Oceanview, 2023. A Koa Kāne Mystery.

Retribution is the latest installment in the tales of Hawaii police detective Koa Kāne. Excluding a volcano disaster in one of his stories, I believe Retribution has the largest body count of these mysteries. But what a tale it is!

The young detective Makanui Ka’uhane, whom we met in the last novel, is shot while leaving her home for work. It becomes clear right away that this was not some random attack, but done by a trained sniper. She normally wears a bulletproof vest at work, so that plus a lucky fall kept her from being killed.

Meanwhile, career criminal Johnny Nihoa was found murdered behind a seedy bar in Hilo. Koa knew him and his story: “Drugs, bad friends, and the indignities of life without family on the lowest rung of Hawaiian society had already shaped Nihoa’s fate” (9). However, Nihoa was last seen with a man who resembled Koa’s brother Ikaika, and Ikaika’s fingerprints appear on a knife at the scene.

We read Ikaika’s story in Fire and Vengeance, and it seemed that Ikaika had reformed. He swears he was at home with his girlfriend Maria, but he is arrested. Because his brother is a suspect, Koa is not on the case. Unfortunately, a new hire, Amado Moreau is. Moreau has a decent resume, but he does not act like a professional with much experience. He is tight with the newly elected mayor of Hilo, so even the chief of police has to be careful about saying anything negative about this new detective on the force.

At the same time, Moreau seems to have it in for Koa. Whether it is professional jealousy, resentment, or something else, it is not really clear. The new mayor was not Koa’s choice—he ran on a “defund the police” platform—so maybe there is more going on.

Alas, the hits keep coming—some attempted murders, for example, the district attorney who is Koa’s friend, and some successful slayings. To give away the victims’ names might spoil things, but they are all people Koa knows well. Indeed, he begins to think that he is the ultimate target. It is not just his brother who is in trouble.

As usual, McCaw weaves a complex plot which includes hikers and campsites, beaches and pilot boats, diplomats and terrorists, disguises and false identities, helicopters and underground hideaways, biologists and bartenders, among devices. Readers will find it hard to put down.

The title Retribution may be a bit of a spoiler. Because of that, it appears that McCaw is giving a Sherlockian twist to his stories. Sherlock Holmes’ declared nemesis and “Napoleon of Crime” was Professor James Moriarty, an evil éminence grise behind much London crime. It appears there may be someone similar for Detective Kāne.

There is a difference, though. Moriarty only appears in two of the fifty-plus Holmes stories and is merely mentioned in five others. Koa’s antagonist has already appeared in some of these tales, hence the title of this novel. Maybe he is more like master criminal Wo Fat—the gangland capo from both iterations of Hawaii Five-O.

P.S. I mentioned a volcano-related disaster in one of the novels. Just last night as I write this, Mauna Loa erupted for the first time in almost forty years. Fortunately, so far no human habitations have been threatened. The Big Island is a lively place.

P.P.S. On page 84, McCaw shares an interesting tidbit of information. Charlie Chan, the Honolulu detective hero of six novels and many films from the 1920s through the 1940s, was based on an actual Honolulu police detective from the late 1800s named Apana Chang.