Pono Hawkins lived life like he wanted. A native Hawaiian, he surfed, wrote articles in surfing magazines, taught a group of foster kids about surfing, and spent time with Mojo, his dachshund, who’d liked to surf, was as good as Pono, and had his own board.

Then one day, he finds the body of a young woman floating in the surf near shore. The cops at first said accidental drowning, then said the water in her lungs was fresh water, that it was murder, then it it suddenly became sea water again, and she’d been floating for six hours.

That’s when it occurred to Pono that why hadn’t the sharks got her if she’d been in the ocean for six hours?

When he gets involved in the the investigation, Pono suddenly finds himself the chief suspect for her murder and more that keep popping up. With the cops looking for him(he has a history with them: in prison for murdering civilians in Afghanistan(a whitewash he eventually escaped), then for drug-dealing(taking the rap for a special forces friend who’d lost his legs In Afghanistan saving his life(, he gets out too quick for one cop that keeps an eye on him.

A man mostly alone, Pono picks his way through a minefield of dirty politics out to sink the island paradise simply to line their pockets, he learns he has more friends than one would imagine, from cops to vets to criminals on the island, all with more morals than most of the politicians.

Quite enjoyed this one.