Book Review
Big Islander's police novel highly readable

Mike Travis is an intriguing guy: a part Hawaiian who lives on his boat, the Kehau, on Avalon Island off California.

His real name is Micheal Travis Kamahele-Van de Groot, but he doesn’t use it for complicated reasons that he doesn’t much like to talk about. He’s a retired Los Angeles homicide detective who is rich, or could be, but who chose to live within his working-stiff means until he put in his 20 and got out at the young age of fortysomething.

He has a family home and a lot of emotional baggage back in Honaunau on the Big Island. His best friend is a taciturn Japanese-German ("A one-man Axis," Travis calls him) with the unlikely name of Hans Yamaguchi. He knows good wine but likes to drink Asahi on ice. He’s sensitive but has trouble showing it. Women like him.

Oh, and serial murders are his specialty.

Travis is the creation of Big Islander Baron R. Birtcher, introduced in a police procedural/serial killer novel released late last year, called "Roadhouse Blues" (Durban House, hardback). Birtcher’s second Mike Travis novel, this one set in Hawai‘i, will come out in the spring.

"Roadhouse Blues" begins as Travis is trying to disappear into the life of a charter boat captain on the touristy island, sleeping with his customers’ daughters, drinking in a "Cheers"-type tavern, trying to banish the dregs of past cases from his dreams.

Then comes the call: It’s about the serial killer that got away, one Travis hadn’t had been able to track down.

The guy’s leaving clues to his particular form of madness all over the map but, as is the custom with these novels, the reader knows what’s up long before Travis tumbles to it.

The book is highly readable and respects the traditions of its genre while keeping the interest alive with believable characters and a truly twisted bad guy. The denouement hinges on a coincidence I found too big to buy, but it didn’t stop me finishing the book, reading the teaser chapter for Birtcher’s next novel, and beginning to look forward to he next outing with intriguing Mike Travis.

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