Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Saving Paradise

Idgie Says:
This novel has a little bit of everything.  Beautiful descriptions of Hawaii, little interesting tidbits of history thrown in, ecology lessons - all intertwined with a murder mystery starring a hunky special agent/surfer/writer dude.

What's not to like?  

In all seriousness though, there is a strong ecological underlying theme running through the book, warning of the dangers of ruining our earth in ways that we won't easily come back from.

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Saving Paradise
Mike Bond
Mandevilla Press (November 20, 2012)

Book Description:

Mike Bond isn’t scared of much. He has hiked more than 50,000 miles—twice the circumference of the earth—through North and South America, New Zealand, Mongolia, Russia, Africa, and France. In the dying days of the Algerian revolution, Bond took off at age 19 across the Sahara, experiencing the euphoria and terror of wandering on foot across the blazing, uncharted desert mountains from Tamanrasset to Timbuktu.

As an international energy expert, war and human rights correspondent, Bond has lived and worked in many remote, dangerous parts of the world, including 30 countries on six continents.

The one thing that terrifies him, however, is the destruction of our most treasured paradises. Some of his characters might be fictitious but Bond’s work has real-world impact.

His Aloha State thriller, SAVING PARADISE (Mandevilla Press, 2012) played a role in stopping the Big Wind and the Inter-island Cable Project in Hawaii. This project would have destroyed major parts of Molokai, Lanai and Maui with more than 40 square miles of wind turbines 42 stories high, all connected by high voltage cables through the Hawaii National Humpback Whale Sanctuary. In addition to drastic environmental and social effects on all three islands, it would have had a catastrophic impact on whales, dolphins and other ocean species including endangered monk seals and turtles.

SAVING PARADISE begins with love at first sight when Pono Hawkins discovers Sylvia Gordon in the surf off Waikiki: she is beautiful, sensitive, athletic, intelligent and—dead. He vows to find out who could have taken the life of the popular journalist, a foolish undertaking for a twice-convicted surfer still on parole. But Pono isn’t one to shy away from trouble—and trouble certainly doesn’t shy away from him. His Special Forces training is going to come in handy when the trail of death leads to something totally unexpected—a scheme to bring Big Wind to the islands that could have disastrous consequences for the Hawaii he knows and loves.

Haunted by memories of Afghanistan and in danger of spending the rest of his life in prison, Pono dodges a cabal of power corporations, foreign killers and crooked politicians all intent on pinning the blame on him. He’s in for a wild ride through the roaring surf and seamy side of paradise. 
 
MIKE BOND was called the “master of the existential thriller” by the BBC and “one of the 21st century’s most exciting authors” by the Washington Times. His ancestors were among the first westerners in Hawaii, he is a bestselling novelist, international energy expert, war and human rights correspondent and award-winning poet who has lived and worked in many remote, dangerous parts of the world. His critically acclaimed novels depict the innate hunger of the human heart for what is good, the intense joys of love, the terror and fury of battle, the sinister vagaries of international politics and multinational corporations and the vanishing beauty of the natural world.