her degree in English literature into employment waiting tables and singing in a new wave rock and roll band. Exciting though this life was, she eventually decided she was ready for a “real” job, and ended up at Stanford Law School.
For the next twenty years Karst worked as the research and appellate attorney for Santa Cruz’s largest civil law firm. During this time, she discovered a passion for food and cooking, and so once more returned to school—this time to earn a degree in Culinary Arts.
Now retired from the law, Karst spends her time cooking, singing alto in the local community chorus, gardening, cycling, and of course writing. She and her wife and their Jack Russell mix, Ziggy, split their time between Santa Cruz and Hilo, Hawai'i.
Karst applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Waters of Destruction, and reported the following:
On page 69 of Waters of Destruction, Valerie Corbin—who’s been asked by her pal Isaac to help prove his girlfriend Sachiko innocent of the murder of Hank, a bartender at the Speckled Gecko where Valerie works—is trying to extract information about the dead man from Jun, the head bartender at the restaurant. Jun, however, is not eager to give out information to this malihini (newcomer to the the island). But then as Valerie presses him further, he becomes more and more agitated. Could he have something to hide?Visit Leslie Karst’s website.
The Page 69 Test actually works fairly well for this book. Not only does it showcase Valerie’s nosiness and sleuthing abilities, but perhaps more importantly, it gives the reader a glimpse into the Hawaiian culture through Jun, a Big Islander of Filipino descent who freely employs the local Pidgin.
One of my primary goals in setting a mystery series on the Big Island of Hawai‘i was to share this wondrous place with readers who’ve never had the opportunity to visit my beloved “Orchid Isle,” and with those who may have been, but would love to return via armchair traveling.
I of course wanted to show readers the black sand beaches dotted with dozing sea turtles, the coco palms swaying in the gentle trade winds, and the psychedelic tropical fish swimming through the coral reefs. But what makes the Big Island so very special to me is the history of immigration to the Hawaiian islands, which has led to a society all its own.
Long after the original Polynesians arrived via canoe some eight hundred years ago came the whalers, then the missionaries and other haoles, who ended up in control of vast sugarcane and pineapple plantations. And then came wave after wave of workers brought in to work those plantations, including Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Filipinos (whose lingua franca on the plantations evolved into the modern Hawaiian Pidgin). As a result, the Big Island is now one of the most culturally diverse places in all the country.
So my hope is that the Orchid Isle mysteries will bring to readers a picture of what Hawai‘i is truly like—not for tourists, but for those who actually reside here. And page 69 of Waters of Destruction is a good start to that.
Coffee with a Canine: Leslie Karst & Ziggy.
My Book, The Movie: The Fragrance of Death.
Q&A with Leslie Karst.
--Marshal Zeringue
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