But so goes it in the west-of-center world of Kai Cooke, Surfing Detective — a world where politics, money and murder churn like winter chop off Hale'iwa.

In "Murder on Moloka'i," the first in a proposed series of six "Surfing Detective" novels, Cooke investigates the suspicious death of an environmental activist on the cliffs of Kalaupapa.

The story turns engagingly complicated as the South Shore Sherlock crosses paths with a hui of corrupt power brokers aligned with a billion-dollar trust bent on turning the former leper colony site into a luxury resort.

Cooke is a curious character. Unlike the brooding prototypes of the genre, this hanai P.I. — with shark-bite scars on his chest and an office modestly adorned with a third-place surfing trophy — prefers to do his heavy thinking atop his longboard, soul-surfer style.

The series also features an eclectic retinue of colorful side characters, including Cooke's best friend, Tommy Woo, a jazz-playing lawyer with a Catholic Chinese father and a Jewish mother.

Hughes, an associate professor of English at the University of Hawai'i and self-described "Sunday surfer," wrote "Murder on Moloka'i" nearly 10 years ago in a conscientious effort to break away from academic writing. (His first two books analyzed the short works of John Steinbeck.)

"I really wanted to write fiction and be published," Hughes said. "I looked at romance, suspense, and historical novels, but the genre that seemed most congenial to me was the detective novel."

'MURDER ON MOLOKA'I' • By Chip Hughes • Island Heritage (2004), paperback • $7.99

"Those were the days of the 'bad' Bishop Estate," Hughes said, chuckling. "We were looking to buy, and there was a lot of uncertainty and frustration involved. It was very personal to us at the time. The estate seems to have evolved since then."

Local readers will appreciate the diversity of Hawai'i life depicted in the novel, from plush resorts to down-and-out mill towns, downtown lei stands to Waimanalo polo fields. And with Cooke chasing leads from Honolulu to Lahaina to the Hamakua Coast, kama'aina readers may be left dewey-eyed remembering lost days of cheap interisland travel.

Hughes' rendering of local archetypes is also well-considered: a haole activist championing Hawaiian causes, a reclusive Indonesian developer, a computer consultant turned ponytailed pot-growing Deadhead.

While the novel was written to be accessible to Mainland readers, Hughes' prose is peppered with everyday Island expressions, most delivered in context without clumsy explanations, and Cooke himself code-shifts back and forth between standard and pidgin English in his dialogue.

Hughes, who grew up in Southern California and moved to Hawai'i in 1981, recruited fellow UH English professor Rodney Morales and Hawaiian scholar Ku'ualoha Ho'omanawanui to help with the pidgin.

"I tried to do it without seeming like a sell-out to local people," Hughes said. "The challenge is to write it so that it is accessible to a Mainland audience but still be OK with local people. I want to be accepted locally, and if this is not credible to local people, I can't continue."

While he isn't a hard-core reader of detective novels, Hughes said he admires the works of Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley and Sue Grafton. And, indeed, fans of the genre will likely pick up on Hughes' nods to Charlie Chan, the Thin Man, and other detective figures in "Murder on Moloka'i."

Hughes has drafts of two more Surfing Detective novels — "Wipeout!" and "Kula" — sitting with publisher Island Heritage, and more on the way.

"Having the first one published gives me some confidence," Hughes said. "(Cooke) has evolved over three books, and I have a better sense of who he is and what the series is about."