Kimo Kanapa’aka by Neil Plakcy

MĀHŪ

Honolulu police detective Kimo Kanapa’aka has made a career out of finding the truth behind other people’s actions—while avoiding a close look at his own life. In MĀHŪ, Kimo is forced to confront his own homosexuality while investigating the death of a man whose body is found behind a gay bar in Waikīkī.

MĀHŪ—a generally negative Hawaiian term for homosexuals—introduces a unique character to detective fiction. Kimo Kanapa'aka is a handsome, mixed-race surfer living in Honolulu, a police detective confronting his homosexuality in an atmosphere of macho bravado within the police force.

MĀHŪ SURFER
MĀHŪ SURFER begins as Kimo reports for work at his new assignment, and his new boss immediately asks him to pretend that he hasn't returned to the department-- that he is taking time off to surf and think about his future. He will go undercover to the North Shore of Oahu and investigate the murders of three surfers. He must lie to everyone around him, including his family and friends-- just after he has come to terms with the truth about his sexuality.

Returning to his roots as a surfer, Kimo gradually gains the trust of others in the surfing community and begins to piece together the case. When more surfers are killed, the urgency to find the killer grows more intense, especially as news of the killings begins to spread around the North Shore. Moving between the North Shore beaches, Honolulu, and Maui, Kimo must put all the pieces together, including why the detectives on the case made so little progress.