Dark Paradise Mystery #03: The Lava Witch

- Blurb -

As Maui detective Kali Mahoe investigates a bizarre ritual murder near Hawaii' s Haleakala Volcano, the hard facts collide with local legends of spirit possession and sorcery in celebrated travel writer Debra Bokur' s third Dark Paradise Mystery. . . In a remote, mountainous area of a Maui forest near Haleakala volcano, the naked body of a young woman is found hanging from a tree. The devil is in the details- the woman' s nostrils, mouth, and lungs are packed with lava sand. Her hands are bound in twine. Her feet are charred and blackened, suggesting a fire-walking ceremony. Detective Kali Mahoe' s suspicions are immediately aroused. It has all the signs of a ritual torture and murder. But Kali' s investigation soon leads her down a winding trail of seemingly unconnected clues and diverging paths-from the hanging tree itself, a rare rainbow eucalyptus, to rumors of a witch haunting the high areas of the forest, to the legend of the ancient Hawaiian sorceress Pahulu, goddess of nightmares. Casting a shadow over it all-the possibility of a Sitting God, a spirit said to invade and possess the soul. Aided by her uncle Police Captain Walter Alaka' i, Officer David Hara, and the victim' s brother, Kali embarks down the darkest road of all. One that is leading to the truth of the mountain' s deadly core and a dark side of the island for which even Kali is unprepared.