The Woman in the Surf
I’ve seen some debate about whether we as readers are ready for books set during the pandemic yet or not. While I’ve been constantly saying I wasn’t ready to read about it yet, even fictionally, I still picked up An Eternal Lei, the second in Naomi Hirahara’s Leilani Santiago Hawai’i Mysteries. And I’m glad I did.
This book finds us in October 2020. In the first book in the series, Leilani had been running her family’s shave ice stand, but they, like so many businesses on the island of Kaua’i, have shut down since there are no tourists on the island. That’s why she is surprised when she and her sisters save a woman they don’t recognize from drowning in nearby Waimea Bay.
The woman seems to be alone on the island, a visitor in an era when no visitors are on the island. Leilani is curious, and with nothing else to do, she starts to figure out who the visitor is and how she came to be on the island. Was she the victim of a tragic accident, or was there more to it than that?
There has been so much political about the pandemic and the responses to it, and I was a bit worried that we would get some of that here. Naomi Hirahara skirts that admirably. Instead, it is the backdrop to what is happening. And, while there is talk of social distancing and masks, it is more a part of the setting like the beautiful locations where the action is taking place.
It also helps provide for some interesting sub-plots. Yes, there is a lot going on here besides the main mystery. At times, I might feel that distracted from the main mystery, but I actually felt it worked well for this book. I was always engaged, and some of the sub-plots dovetail nicely with the main mystery. These stories get some nice resolutions, including a suspenseful climax to the main mystery.
The book also does a great job of building characters and showing us how they are dealing with life as it was in October 2020. Again, it’s subtle things, but it really helps define character, both those we met in the first book and those we meet here for the first time.
The characters often speak in a form of Pidgin, also incorporating some Hawaiian and Japanese words into what they are saying. It felt odd at first, but I quickly got used to it. There is a glossary of the most common words you might not recognize, but I honestly didn’t need to refer to it since I was able to figure out what the characters were saying from the context. This truly isn’t an issue, and as long as you know that going in, you’ll be fine.
I still don’t know that I’m ready to read many books set during the Covid world of the last two years, but I am glad I picked up An Eternal Lei. It’s a strong story that kept me entertained.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book
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