Celebrated travel writer and expert Debra Bokur makes her fiction debut with The Fire Thief, a police procedural mystery that explores the nuanced culture and captivating beauty of Hawaii via its two very different lead characters: a veteran police captain and the granddaughter of one of Hawaii's most respected spiritual leaders. The scenery may be beautiful, but dangerous secrets are buried beneath paradise in this first thriller featuring Maui detective Kali Māhoe.

Under a promising morning sky, police captain Walter Alaka'i discovers the body of a teenage surfer bobbing among the lava rocks of Maui's southeastern shore. Closer inspection reveals something far more sinister than the results of a savage wave gone wrong. Now that Alaka'i is looking at a homicide, he solicits the help of his niece, Detective Kali Māhoe. Kali sees evidence of a strange ritual murder, a suspicion reinforced by a rash of sightings of a noppera-bō--a faceless and malicious spirit many believe to be more than superstition. When a grisly sacrifice is left on the doorstep of a local, and another body washes ashore, Kali fears that the deadly secret ceremonies on Maui are just beginning. As the skies above Maui grow darker, and as she balances reason and superstition, Kali can only wonder: Who'll be the next to die? And who--or what--is she even on the trail of?

The scenery may be beautiful, but dangerous secrets are buried beneath paradise in this first thriller featuring Maui detective Kali Māhoe.

Under a promising morning sky, police captain Walter Alaka'i discovers the body of a teenage surfer bobbing among the lava rocks of Maui's southeastern shore. Closer inspection reveals something far more sinister than the results of a savage wave gone wrong. Now that Alaka'i is looking at a homicide, he solicits the help of his niece, Detective Kali Māhoe.

Kali sees evidence of a strange ritual murder, a suspicion reinforced by a rash of sightings of a noppera-bō--a faceless and malicious spirit many believe to be more than superstition. When a grisly sacrifice is left on the doorstep of a local, and another body washes ashore, Kali fears that the deadly secret ceremonies on Maui are just beginning. As the skies above Maui grow darker, and as she balances reason and superstition, Kali can only wonder: Who'll be the next to die? And who--or what--is she even on the trail of?

"Bokur's welcome debut nimbly contrasts t