Death in Hilo

Redman’s sturdy second mystery featuring Maj. Kawika Wong (after Bones of Hilo) finds the Honolulu detective juggling grisly cases past and present. When a serial killer nicknamed the Kapi‘olani Park Slasher kills five locals seemingly at random and dumps their bodies in Kapi‘olani Park, Wong shirks his traditional supervisor role to investigate. The discovery of a sixth body in Kapi‘olani with its head and hands missing—distinguishing it from the earlier corpses—leads Wong to consider the possibility of a copycat killer. Complicating matters even further is renewed public scrutiny of a high-profile case Wong solved 12 years earlier. Wong’s efforts led career criminal Michael Cushing to confess to hiring a hit man to kill three people, including shady real estate developer Ralph Fortunato. On the eve of Cushing’s release from prison, however, he recants part of his confession, claiming someone else murdered Fortunato. Meanwhile, pressure mounts to catch the Slasher and the potential imitator. Redman juggles the plotlines nimbly, creating palpable stakes for Wong while keeping readers guessing about the truth behind each slaying. Fans of Naomi Hirahara’s Leilani Santiago Hawai‘i Mysteries should give this a spin. Agent: Anne DePue, Anne DePue Literary. (Feb.)