Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Kristi Jones for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Ghosts of Waikiki is a good mystery novel, perfect for summer reading. It has just about everything it needs for light reading while at the same time keeping me turning the page. Not to mention, the setting in Hawaii is perfect for a mental vacation while reading.

Maya Wong is an unemployed newspaper reporter who lands a job ghostwriting a novel back in Hawaii where she grew up. She hasn’t been back home in some time but has misgivings about reacquainting herself with her old friends, particularly her ex-boyfriend Koa.

The Hamiltons are a powerful and wealthy family on the island. Maya was hired to ghostwrite the biography of Parker Hamilton in hopes that it would help boost his son, Steven, to a career in politics. During one of the days at the Hamilton mansion, the patriarch of the family, Charles Hamilton, is found floating in the pool of what at first appears to be a heart attack.

However, Maya soon seems to be the target of a serial mugger. It’s a little too much of a coincidence for Koa, who is now a police detective. He soon insinuates himself in Maya’s life as he tries to protect her and she resists. Meanwhile, she also comfortably falls into her old life with her friends and family, all the while trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Charles Hamilton.

I liked Maya a lot. She’s at a crossroads in her life, having spent ten-plus years away from home. She thought she was happy living in a small basement apartment alone until she returned to the comfortable environs she grew up in. It’s something many people can relate to, especially if they’ve ever left home and wondered if it was the right thing to do, or wished they had. She’s extremely relatable. With another man in the picture, she’s resisting Koa’s attempts to get back in her life, but she is enjoying having her friends around again.

My one complaint would be everything seemed to be very predictable. There were few real surprises in the story. I had a suspect in mind early on, and though I was wrong, I can’t say I was surprised when it was revealed. The Hamiltons themselves seem to be caricatures of the evil colonist family with little depth to them. The red herring here also had a tie t the family that would have been better had it been fleshed out more.

Jennifer Morita has done a great job depicting the non-tourist part of Hawaii and what it feels like. There are some good themes running through Ghosts of Waikiki about family and community. I enjoyed reading it and recommend it for light summer reading. It was a lot of fun.