Sinking Suspicions

Set in 2004, Hoklotubbe’s amiable third Sadie Walela mystery (after 2011’s The American Café) finds the Oklahoma Cherokee pursing a new career as a travel agent. When Sadie is on an introductory trip to Maui to meet the folks at Playin’ in Paradise Travel, her neighbor, WWII vet Buck Skinner, goes missing. Buck’s troubles with the IRS and the discovery of a pair of murder victims turn the search for Buck into a manhunt led by Delaware County’s Sheriff Percy O’Leary and aided by Sadie’s lover, Lance Smith, police chief of Liberty, Okla. In Hawaii, Sadie meets a young woman, Pua Keola, whose mother, Tutu Lehua, shares some WWII reminiscences that point to a startling personal connection. On returning home, Sadie joins the hunt for Buck in an effort to prove him innocent of the murders, but her relationship with Lance suffers in the process. New readers will want to seek out the author’s earlier novels. (Oct.)