Barking Sands: A Surfing Detective Mystery

by Chip Hughes

Tracking serial killers isn’t Kai Cooke’s kuleana—or thing. So when the mother of a rape and murder victim abducted near Barking Sands Beach begs him to find the brute, Kai reluctantly declines.

The twenty-year-old case of three slain women is on Kaua‘i and the local force isn’t likely to cooperate with an O‘ahu PI. Then another woman fitting the victims’ profiles goes missing and the cold case appears to turn warm. Is the Barking Sands Strangler back?

Kai still begs off. Until his girlfriend who’s just discovered she’s pregnant backs the grieving mother and he hops a plane to Kaua‘i. But can he pull off what two decades of police work couldn’t? Or wrap his mind around the prospect of parenthood?

277 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2021

About the author

Chip Hughes learned to surf in San Diego in the late 1960s. He earned a Ph.D. in English at Indiana University in 1981 and taught American literature, film, writing, and popular fiction for nearly three decades at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His
non-fiction publications include two books on John Steinbeck and numerous essays and reviews.

An active member of the Private Eye Writers of America, Chip launched the Surfing Detective mystery series in 2004 with Murder on Moloka‘i. Since 2011 the series has been published exclusively by Slate Ridge Press.

When not working on the series, Chip enjoys walking and running with his wife and companion of thirty-five years, surfing with his buddy, practicing the piano, getting together with Porsche club friends, and hanging out with his golden retriever. He tries to live "green" with recycling, solar panels, and an electric car. He generally eats vegetarian. Chip and his wife split their time between homes in Hawai‘i and upstate New York.

Reviews

[Chip Hughes]

This is probably the last Surfing Detective I will write, so I tried to make it the best. It has more back story about Kai Cooke than any of the previous five novels and probably a more intricate plot--that is, the multi-layered case Kai has to solve. I spent about three years in the actual writing of the book, but I started it many years before, thirteen years ago back in 2008. Already then, I had the title, BARKING SANDS, and also a plot outline. Turns out the book that was finally published in 2021 has a very different plot than I had first imagined, but the title and settings and epigraph from the song "All Hawai'i Stand Together" by Dennis Pavao remained. The book is dedicated to my late attorney and jazz piano virtuoso friend, Les Peetz, 1949-2018, who was the model for Tommy Woo in the series. The case itself is based on true-crime unsolved serial murders that happened on the island of Kaua'i in 2000. In BARKING SANDS the victims become three young women in their late teens and early twenties and their killer is still at large. Kai at first refuses the very cold case for good reasons, but then is drawn in due to his slowly-awakening compassion for the grief-stricken mother of one of the victims. He's hardly prepared for the twists and turns in his very first--and very last--serial killer case. It's a good one to retire on! I hope you enjoy it. Mahalo, Goodreads friends.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

nicely crafted book, fun to read

I stumbled upon the surfing detective series a couple weeks ago, thanks to a friend who lives near the author. Since then, I’ve devoured the whole series in chronological order. They keep getting better, and this one was the best yet. Hard to put down, and especially enjoyable to read if one is familiar with each of the island settings in which action takes place.

[Tonya Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who is the killer

Kai is a surfing pi and pretty popular. One day, this lady came in wanting justice for the barking sands stranguler. Of course, he repeatedly told her no, and it was his fiance to make him do it. This frozen case got worse when an assistant attorney daughter died, but in the end and lots of ups and down pieces started to come together

[GW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barking Sands -

This was a well told story that moved fairly quickly. The author does a good job of keeping the reader focused while adding local Hawaiian flair and humor to the book.

[yitr]

read on flight because no phone