Honolulu landlord Wilson McKenna can smell a scam from across the room. So when one of his tenants loses everything in a work-at-home scam involving a new perfume, he’s shocked. With his wedding just weeks away, McKenna has to make a tough decision. Does he evict a woman who’s down on her luck? Or take time out from wedding planning to help his tenant?
Turning the case over to his PI-in-training friend Chance Logan seems like the perfect solution—until Chance tells McKenna he needs a wingman for a visit to fragrance entrepreneur Skye Pilkington-Winchester. McKenna’s sure he can keep everyone happy by helping Chance this one time. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems, and soon McKenna’s up to his board shorts in hot water. His tenant’s simple fragrance scam might involve industrial espionage, Skye’s assistant is murdered, and McKenna’s bride-to-be accuses him of having cold feet.
As McKenna and Chance dig deeper, it seems so much of what they’re being told doesn’t pass the sniff test. And the only way to get his life back is to find the dead girl’s missing boyfriend, unmask a killer, and finish up in time for the wedding. Other than that, it’s just another day in paradise.
MY REVIEW
I have been to Hawaii. Ok, so it was a long time ago, but I remember (fondly) it like it was yesterday. Of course, the planes had several delays, so we arrived at sunset instead of at lunchtime. I know, boo hoo for me, right? Why do I bring this up at all? Because my problems back then were nothing compared to McKenna's in The Scent of Waikiki.
You see, it wasn't so long ago that McKenna promised his fiancee that he would stop helping other people. A woman has got to wonder if her man really cares if he's spending all his time with other folks. Just then, naturally, a tenant comes to McKenna with a problem. She's been scammed and doesn't have money to pay the rent.
He doesn't want to evict her. And he doesn't want to upset his fiancee by spending time on someone else, again. So he turns the issue over to Chance, a PI trainee. Easy-peasy and everyone's happy! The fiancee doesn't get mad, the tenant is covered, and Chance gets a case to work! Oh my (possibly naive) friends, nothing is ever that easy, not even in paradise.
Everyone who's ever been to (or ever dreamed of going to) Hawaii has got to love the descriptions of the setting. Once in a while, I'd catch myself smiling, when the author's words brought up a pleasant memory of my time there.
As a fan of doing things in order, I wish I had read the previous installments in the “Trouble in Paradise Mysteries” before reading Waikiki. But my first experience with a cozy mystery was like the 4th book in a series, and I wound up reading the whole series. I'll have to get with Santa and see about the rest of the “Trouble in Paradise” mysteries, because now I want to read them all! After all, I've been a very good girl this year! (Well, that's my story anyway! 😉 )
MEET THE AUTHOR
,” won the San Diego Book Awards for Best Action-Thriller. He likes cool photography, funny mysteries, and finding the oddest things while walking on the beach.
