Joining me today is featured author Tori Eldridge, whose latest release takes readers to Kaua‘i Island to explore family tensions, love, and suspicious disappearances. If you like your mysteries with strong heroines and heaps of adventure—as in, combing through tropical rainforests during a relentless storm—you will find something to love in Kaua‘i Storm.
Read on for our discussion about family, heritage, mystery, and more.
Connect with Tori on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and her website. Grab your copy of Kaua‘i Storm here (the audiobook is narrated by Tori herself!).
Thanks for joining, Tori! Kaua‘i Storm introduces a new protagonist: park ranger Makalani, who returns home to Kaua‘i to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday, only to find family drama stemming from the disappearance of two of her cousins. What makes a large, multigenerational, and multicultural family such a great backdrop for a mystery?
What a wonderful question! Relationships are at the heart of all my favorite stories I have written and loved reading. The most complicated, important, and emotional relationships of all are within family. Writing about a large multigenerational family, especially one that has expanded to include additional ethnicities and cultures—as most families do—allows me to explore multiple perspectives and attitudes about any given situation or event. It’s a hotbed for conflict, misinformation, as well as an opportunity for my characters to experience revelations and emotional growth. Makalani’s family is such a focal point of this novel that I created a seven-generation genealogy and included it in the beginning of the book.
I admired Makalani’s strength—physical and mental, as she uses both to track down her missing cousins and mend her family relationships. How did you craft Makalani’s character? Which of her characteristics do you think are most valuable to a mystery protagonist?
I always saw Makalani as a strong and capable Hawaiian woman, and since many of our ancestors were majestic people, six feet tall—not the willowy model type—I wanted Makalani to be able to lift, carry, and even build. Over ninety percent of Kaua‘i Island is uninhabited forested wilderness, so making her a law enforcement national park ranger gave her the necessary skills to overcome all the dangers I planned to put in her way.
Her steadfast determination, devotion to family, and deep sense of kuleana—responsibility—makes her an unstoppable force. But she’s also introspective. Her struggles and self-doubt open her mind to new possibilities she might not have normally seen.
Like your Lily Wong mystery thriller series, Kaua‘i Storm takes inspiration from your multicultural heritage. What do you love about exploring cultural identity in your books? What does it mean to you to write a novel set in your home state of Hawaiʻi?
Exploring my own cultural identity is not only fascinating, but it also enriches my life and makes my books feel all the more personal and therefore important to me. I believe that passion can be felt on the page or while listening to me narrate the audiobook.
Timing is everything. I wrote the Lily Wong ninja series after two decades of training and teaching the ninja martial arts, so sharing an authentic view of modern ninja was at the forefront of my mind. I also wanted to pay homage to my Chinese-Hawaiian mother and my Norwegian father before they passed away.
With Kaua‘i Storm, my focus had switched when I became Tūtū, which means Grandma in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i (Native Hawaiian language). Knowing that my grandchildren would learn about their Hawaiian heritage from me inspired me to deepen my connection and learn more about what was happening with Native Hawaiians in Hawai‘i today. As I studied the language and began chanting in Hawaiian as I had in my youth, I felt a surge of aloha in my heart. It is my deepest desire to share this same aloha with my readers and to show them a Hawai‘i they have never experienced before.
The book includes many facets of Hawaiian culture: cuisine, nature, heritage, the struggles facing Native Hawaiians today. How did you weave these elements into a thriller? What do you hope readers take away from Kaua‘i Storm (in addition to a compelling mystery, of course)?
I habitually weave family drama and culture into intrigue and thrills because, for me, relatable relationships plus a fascinating new community adds depth to the characters, expands reader perception, increases awareness, and adds enriching value to the entertainment I hope to provide. I would love my readers to come away with a deeper appreciation for the Hawaiian people and the place that so many of them yearn to visit or have come to love.
Lastly, what’s next for you? Can we expect more Ranger Makalani, and/or do you have anything else you’d like to share?
I’m about to begin the editorial process for my second Ranger Makalani Pahukula Mystery. This time I will take her to Hawai‘i Island and a paniolo—Hawaiian cowboy—ranch!
Thanks so much to Tori for the interview. Detectives, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.