Death Inside Diamond Head (Matt Hogan Mystery Series Book #5)
Author: Randolph Mase
4.5 out of 5 stars
At Diamond Head crater in Hawaii, a group of hikers find the body of Justin Fisher, a police officer from New York. The Honolulu police soon realize that Justin’s wife, Lena, is also missing. While on his own vacation in Hawaii with his girlfriend, Kathy, Matt Hogan receives a phone call from his friend Tom Walker. Tom asks Matt to assist with the investigation into Justin Fisher’s death. With Kathy’s support, Matt agrees to help. Will Matt and Kathy figure out what happened to the Fishers? Is Lena still alive?
Although this is a short book, it was really good. While it’s the fifth Matt Hogan mystery, it can be read as a standalone story without any issue. There is some fluff as Matt and Kathy have some fun in between investigating, but the story is mostly focused on the mystery. There also wasn’t a lot of action or suspense. I liked Matt’s methodical lists of the things they had learned and what they still needed to do. It’s helpful to the reader, and if you love to solve the mystery before the characters, then you won’t have to write your own notes.
I also liked the use of Hawaiian words at a few points in the story. I appreciated the natural way that the author was able to include how they should be pronounced by having the correct spelling of the word along with the spelling of how Matt was pronouncing it, instead of having the reader trying to figure it out or having to look it up.
There were just a couple of small things that bothered me, which is why I didn’t give this book 5 stars. One is that sometimes things were phrased a bit oddly. The other thing is that Matt was always called Hogan outside of dialogue. I wouldn’t have really noticed this if it wasn’t for Kathy who was always called Kathy. Granted, her last name is Russell, but it continually struck me as odd throughout the story.
Overall, this was a great book. The few issues I had with it were more personal preference, so I’ve decided to rate Death Inside Diamond Head 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you’re looking for a mystery-focused book that isn’t action-packed and doesn’t go into a lot of details about the characters lives, then you should definitely check it out.
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Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089ZXWWYB
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