Robert McCaw grew up in a military family traveling the world. After graduating from Georgetown University, he served as a lieutenant in the US Army before earning his law degree from the University of Virginia. Thereafter he practiced as a partner in a major international law firm in Washington, DC, and New York City, and maintained a home on the Big Island of Hawai’i. McCaw brings a unique authenticity to his Koa Kāne Hawaiian mystery novels in both his law enforcement expertise and his ability to portray the richness of Hawai’i’s history, culture, and people.
In Off the Grid, released this month, a scrap of cloth fluttering in the wind leads Hilo police Chief Detective Koa Kāne to the tortured remains of an unfortunate soul left to burn in the path of an advancing lava flow. For Koa, it’s the second gruesome homicide of the day, and he soon discovers the murders are linked. These grisly crimes on Hawaiʻi’s Big Island could rewrite history―or cost Chief Detective Koa Kāne his career as the CIA, the Chinese government, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, attempt to thwart Koa’s investigation and obscure the victims’ true identities.
Undeterred by mounting political pressure, Koa pursues the truth only to find himself drawn into a web of international intrigue. While Koa investigates, the Big Island scrambles to prepare for the biggest and most explosive political rally in its history. Despite police resources stretched to the breaking point, Koa uncovers a government conspiracy so shocking its exposure topples senior officials far beyond Hawaiʻi’s shores.
Robert McCaw stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R and talk about writing and researching his novel:
For me research is a way of life. I’m always in research mode, whether walking the streets of New York or the beaches and villages of Hawaii, eating out in restaurants, online, in libraries, or even in the shower. Research for me is like street photography; it’s about seeing and capturing the moment. But we “see” with more than our eyes, and optimizing the value of our time spent researching, we must use our intellect to process information from multiple sources using all our senses to tease out the informative moment. That moment may be geographic as in the setting for a scene or personal as in transforming acquaintances or strangers into fictional characters. It can also be linguistic as in fashioning dialog or atmospheric as in describing sounds and smells. Often it is intellectual as in remembering a thought or emotion provoked by the immediate company or surroundings.
The seed that grew into the Koa Kāne mystery thriller series sprouted while I was on a star-gazing trip atop the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. In addition to visiting the Keck telescope, the largest optical telescope in the northern hemisphere, I saw quarries where centuries ago ancient Hawaiians manufactured stone tools from particularly hard lava found on the upper slopes of the 14,000-foot mountain. Fascinated by the contrast between the ancient and the modern, I set out to learn everything I could about both.
With respect to the quarries, I hit the Bishop Museum and the UH Manoa libraries, bought archaeological texts, searched online, and, of course, made a trip to the quarries. I studied stone tool-making, examined adzes in museum collections, and traced some of the far-flung places where implements from Mauna Kea have been recovered. In my research, I discovered a mystery the archaeologists have yet to solve: Why after centuries of production did the ancients abandon the Mauna Kea quarries, probably in the sixteenth century, long before the first western contact with the islands? And therein lies one of the central themes just beneath the surface of my first Koa Kāne mystery thriller, Death of a Messenger.
Astronomy is the career I didn’t pursue, and fascinated by the cutting-edge technology of Mauna Kea’s huge Keck telescope, I immersed myself in text books, magazine articles, and observatory websites, delving into segmented mirror technology, adaptive optics, artificial guide stars, and exciting modern discoveries about the cosmos. I visited observatories and talked to astronomers. Standing on the platform at Keck’s prime focus is a form of research that inspires imagination. From these research moments emerged a whole cast of fictional characters, animated by professional jealousies, populating action scenes atop Mauna Kea in Death of a Messenger.
Newspaper research also yields great fonts of information. Dozens of news stories about a significant international event underpin the plot of Off the Grid, the second in the Koa Kāne series of mystery thrillers. Google maps and satellite views provide useful details. Tourist books often spark ideas about locations, offering brief insights into the history or significance of places that provoke follow-up research. Advertisements can reveal details about vehicles, communications gear, spy equipment, guns, explosives, and other implements of the thriller trade. Sirchie holds itself out as the global leader in criminal investigative solutions, and its catalogs and websites are full of information on forensic equipment and practices. Google images are a great sources of pictures of potential characters, their clothing, and jewelry.
Police and legal procedures differ widely from one jurisdiction to another, and Lee Lofland’s Writers’ Police Academy is a fabulous resource. At these annual conferences, federal, state and local law enforcement officers teach the basics of police work, including fingerprinting, ballistics, undercover operations, hand-to-hand combat, canine unit activities, drug interdiction, warrant execution, traffic stops, bomb disposal, and numerous other police activities. These seminars account for many authentic details in my novels.
The Big Island of Hawaii is a writer’s gold-mine of decisive moments, a place where one researches with one’s eyes, ears, and heart. Hours walking around Hilo, Hawi, Honakaʻa, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and the Green Sand beach lend visual and atmospheric authenticity to scene after scene in my novels. Watch hot lava creep across a barren landscape and it’s not hard to imagine it covering a body as in Off the Grid. Go to dinner at a local favorite restaurant only to find it closed because the law caught up with the owner, a fugitive from justice, and imagine other fugitives hiding out in a remote rain forest as in Off the Grid. Seek out an artist to commission a painting, and get a primer on how real people do in fact live off the grid.
Life is research if you open all your senses to it.
You can read more about author Robert McCaw and his books via his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Off the Grid is now available via Oceanview Publishing and can be purchased via all major book retailers.
Comments