{"id":6818,"date":"2017-10-02T10:57:53","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6818"},"modified":"2017-10-02T10:57:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:57:53","slug":"the-place-of-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6818","title":{"rendered":"****The Place of Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"orchid-leis\"<\/a>

photo: Emilia, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By Al Tucher \u2013 This 160-page novella takes great advantage of its setting on the Big Island of Hawai`i. For those who\u2019ve visited the islands (or wanted to), this is a low-cost, no-jet-lag trip full of adventure.<\/p>\n

For some time, Detective Errol Coutinho of the Hawai`i County Police and his partner, Detective Kim, have been on the trail of a serial killer of prostitutes. The murders stopped for a period of months, but now a Filipino hotel maid has discovered what appears to be the renewal of working-girl carnage. They need a decoy.<\/p>\n

On the island of Oahu, undercover police officer Jessie Hokoana of the Honolulu Police Department is working to expose a major drug dealer, getting close to him and gaining his confidence using the oldest trick in the book. Jessie grew up on the Big Island, daughter of the owner of a small Korean barbeque place and Hosea Hokoana, an enormous Hawaiian man who feared nothing and no one, except perhaps Jessie\u2019s mother. Hosea decamped from the family twenty years ago, when Jessie was young.<\/p>\n

Jessie\u2019s investigative target and boyfriend, Teddy Dias, is persuaded to go to Mexico to try to make a marijuana-supply deal with the leader of a Mexican cartel. Pakalolo<\/em>\u2014nicknamed Kona Gold or Puna Butter\u2014could be supplied by Teddy and fed into the Mexicans\u2019 distribution network. He takes Jessie with him. She agrees, mainly because she\u2019s heard about a cage fighter there whom she believes may be her father.<\/p>\n

In Hawai`i the police can give her only minimal protection, but in Mexico, none at all. And when the hoped-for drug deal goes south, only her father can save her. If he realizes who she is. If he wants to.\u00a0 The story of Jessie\u2019s family, especially of Hosea and his return to Hawaiian society and the consequences of that, ultimately involving Coutinho and Kim, predominate in the story.<\/p>\n

This book provides a great flavor for the rich multi-cultural society in Hawai\u2019i. Coutinho\u2019s ancestors were Portuguese, while Kim is Korean; their boss, Tanaka, is Japanese. Jessie is half Hawaiian and half Anglo. In author Tucher\u2019s hands, these characters are interesting and unique individuals, not bending to stereotype.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also humor in the book, especially among the detectives. Tucher resolves the big plot questions, but not the human relationship questions, which is probably more realistic than an excessively tidy ending and holds the door open for further installments, which will be as welcome as a trip to the islands!
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Al Tucher \u2013 This 160-page novella takes great advantage of its setting on the Big Island of Hawai`i. For those who\u2019ve visited the islands (or wanted to), this is a low-cost, no-jet-lag trip full of adventure. For some time, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"****The Place of Refuge - a crime novella that takes advantage of Hawaii's rich culture & lush setting","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,40,126,359],"tags":[1133,409,678,1134],"class_list":["post-6818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-fiction","category-reading-2","category-review","tag-al-tucher","tag-hawaii","tag-murder","tag-the-place-of-refuge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1LY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6819,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions\/6819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}