Bøger af Bill Fernandez

In 1920 Honolulu, a series of human-sacrifice style murders of the elite occur, some of them at heaiu (temples). The hooded killer leaves notes promising more murders to come and are signed: "Cult of Ku". Grant Kingsley, son of a prominent sugar baron, returns home to the islands after his heroic military service in World War One. His angry grandmother confronts him because his half Hawaiian mother's death bed note suggests his father was Hawaiian, not her sugar planter son. When she is brutally murdered Grant is arrested. Released from jail, Grant knows he must clear his name quickly because of public pressure. More brutal murders of the elite occur, each with the same note from "Cult of Ku". His frantic search leads him to the Chinese criminal underworld, Hawaiian martial arts lessons, plantation labor union violence, the Bishop Museum, and a unique Honolulu detective who carries a whip. Grant comes close to capturing the killer and races his car down city streets to catch him. A famous Hawaiian swimmer and surfer befriends him. Grant finds relief from tension as he learns to enjoy the ocean sports with native Hawaiians who were not included in his social world. When a navy officer suggests that Japan is preparing for war, Grant finds himself recruited to be a spy. Grant worries about losing his sugar baron father's love because of the clouded ancestry. Torn by his love for his father but discovering the brutal side of the sugar industry toward its workers, Grant struggles for an answer. A Euro-Asian scholar helps him in his search. As Grant races to try to prevent another murder, he accosts the killer at a seaside heiau (temple) where they battle amidst crashing waves. The discovery of the identity of the killer and his motive stun him.

Hawaiian Rebellions, Book Three of the John Tana novel trilogy, completes the dramatic story of the native Hawaiian hero, John Tana, as he tries to comprehend and adapt to the Western takeover of the Hawaiian Islands in the 19th century. It begins when a sugar baron kicks him off his farmland on Maui in 1867. The trilogy records the story of the end of the communal lifestyle of the Hawaiian Kingdom, overthrown by Western capitalists and religion in 1893, and how he turns into a freedom fighter. In the first two books of the trilogy (John Tana, An Adventure Novel of Old Hawaii and Gods, Ghosts and Kahuna on Kauai) the young orphan hero is unaware of the impending destruction of his culture by Western business and religious interests when a sugar baron kicks him off his inherited farmland (kuleana)in 1867. He sails his canoe to Lahaina where whalers and seamen torment him but he also finds distant family - an aunt, and two cousins, David and Leinani. David succumbs to the temptation of liquor. John quickly learns that the new religion forbids romantic relationships with relatives. As he struggles to understand and survive, he meets a Chinese man and wife who he helps, eventually bringing them to the island of Oahu to escape rioting sailors. John is forced to leave Maui when he learns the sugar baron has hired a killer, and an angry sea captain seeks revenge for John's rescue of Leinani.Oahu is more complicated. The new city of Honolulu is growing under the control of the Western business interests which makes it hard for John to survive. He meets a future king, a French girl, studies the forbidden martial art of lua, continues his friendship with Leinani, and helps a Chinese man facing a murder trial. When the sugar baron's hired killer finds John he once again turns to his canoe and sails north to the island of Kauai.In Book Two, Gods, Ghosts and Kahuna on Kauai, John finds work as a plantation security guard and marries Mahealani whose strong traditional beliefs challenge John's new Christianity when death strikes.The swirling clouds on mountain peaks, rainbows, plunging waterfalls, and pounding surf sounding like voices of gods create an air of mystery on the island. John meets a queen, visits the leper colony on Molokai, and raises a family on new farmland.Book Three, Hawaiian Rebellions, completes the well-researched historical trilogy. The late 19th century is a time of increasing political power of Western business interests who push their political agenda to overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom. John is squeezed between the capitalism of plantations and traditional Hawaiian values of sharing. He accepts the new religion, Christianity, which creates marital tension. John finally succeeds in creating a farm and raises a family. Tattooed men attack his family, the water supply for his farm is threatened, and lepers, mostly Hawaiians, rebel against forced isolation. John witnesses the brutality of artillery used against them in Kalalau Valley on Kauai. Native Hawaiians begin to feel pushed to the brink of extinction and seek to restore the monarchy, an effort John joins. While recovering from wounds, Leinani enters his life again. The John Tana historical novel trilogy will become a classic in Hawaiian literature because it is based on actual events and people overtaken by a complex new world which rejects Hawaiian values and religion but fails to offer a better society. This struggle leads to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom monarchy and suppression of Hawaiians and their communal values which is still felt in modern times. Based on historical events and characters, the John Tana trilogy fills a void in Hawaiian fiction.

The early years of the Twentieth Century erupted into violence in the world as Communism-inspired laborers went on strike against the Capitalist exploitation of poor wages and bad living conditions. In Hawaii, firm control of workers by plantations was made easier by importing workers from different countries who could not communicate, the "Divide and Conquer" technique.On the island of Kauai, in Hanapepe in 1924, Filipino strikers were met with rifles and sheriff deputies. Sixteen men died. This Grant Kingsley historical novel, Terrorism in Paradise, begins when the hero loses his father in an explosion. He and Detective Asing must find the killer before the Planters Association blames Japanese workers and demands a forced roundup of all of them. Local gang corruption, an angry jilted suiter of Grant's wife, car chases, an elite Hawaiian royalty group, and a dangerous object in his son's hands obstruct and distract Grant in the search for his father's killer.Meanwhile, an angry Filipino seeks his own justice.The novel is based on the true Hanapepe Massacre of 1924. People seeking fairness were shot by their bosses.

Gods, Ghosts and Kahuna on Kauai is the sequel to the dramatic novel of John Tana, An Adventure Novel of Old Hawaii which is set during the time of the Hawaiian Kingdom. That novel begins in the mid 1800s when the native Hawaiian hero John Tana struggles to understand and survive in the fast-moving Westernization of the islands. This sequel finds John heading in his canoe to the island of Kauai to escape the wrath of the sugar planter who forced him off his farmland on Maui years earlier. His love, Leinani remains on Oahu. Will he succeed in the Western world of private property that is replacing the Hawaiian communal lifestyle? Will America end the independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom? Because of his martial arts training, John finds work for the plantations as a security guard. Competition among the planters and damage caused by resentful immigrant workers are reducing profits. He rescues people caught in a massive storm and flood, escorts a king, and settles into a contented family life. While in Honolulu to discuss security issues, he encounters his love, Leinani, and her American husband. Not only are the Western businessmen challenging Hawaiian values, the pressure from the missionaries to accept Christianity challenges Hawaiian spiritual beliefs. Many Hawaiians find it almost impossible to turn their backs on their traditions despite their baptism. A source of friction in John's marriage is the strong pull of the tradition of kahunas, gifts to the gods, fear of curses, and chants. Not everyone has discarded the rituals. Even John succumbs. John faces thugs hired by a sugar baron to kill him, a shark, and a wild boar. While on a hunt of the boar, John grasps a doll figure in a kahuna's hut and is stricken with fear. When he rushes home he is blamed for a death. A princess asks him to escort her to the leper colony on Molokai where he witnesses cruel conditions imposed on mostly Hawaiians. He learns that America believes in Manifest Destiny which brought America to their shores. John and his family prosper as they try to hold onto Hawaiian values, but there is always the nagging doubt of whether it can last. Kauai is a wild, tropical place where clouds swirl around sharp mountain peaks, water plunges thousands of feet, birds soar among the cliffs, the roar of the distant surf sounds like gods speaking, and kahuna curses seem real.