by: Leslie Karst
Series: Orchid Isle Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: April 1, 2025
Publisher: Severn House
Retired caterer Valerie Corbin investigates a suspicious drowning in this Orchid Isle cozy culinary mystery, featuring a feisty queer couple who swap surfing lessons for sleuthing sessions in tropical Hilo, Hawai‘i
After a vacation of a lifetime in Hilo, Hawai‘i, retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen have decided to move permanently to the beautiful – if storm-prone – Big Island. The couple are having fun furnishing their new house, exploring their new neighborhood and playing with their new little dog, Pua. But while they’ve made good friends with local restaurant manager Sachiko and her partner Isaac, they can’t help but feel a little lonely.
So when Sachiko begs Val to fill in for a member of her bar team who’s gone AWOL, Val dusts off her cocktail shaker and happily agrees. It’s a great chance to meet more people – and learn the local gossip.
Such as about Hank, the missing bartender, who vanished after a team-building retreat at a local beauty spot a week ago, and hasn’t been seen since. Until, that is, his body turns up at the bottom of the waterfall, and the police seem very interested in where Sachiko was at the time of his death.
Sachiko couldn’t have killed him . . . could she? Val dives into the murky waters of the case, determined to find out.
This mouth-watering cozy mystery is perfect for fans of Ellen Byron, Jennifer J Chow, Lucy Burdette and Raquel V Reyes, and includes a selection of delicious Hawaiian recipes to cook at home.
I’d been working as a research and appellate attorney for twenty years and when I retired, I realized I needed something to occupy my brain other than simply watching movies, cooking, and walking my dog all day long (pleasant though all that sounds!). Since my job had been as a writer, it made sense to keep on writing, and since I loved mystery novels—and food, as well—I decided to try my hand at a culinary cozy.
What’s funny is that it didn’t occur to me at the time that my experience as a lawyer would aid in penning mystery novels, but in fact it ended up being quite helpful. It turns out that the process of legal writing—where you have to organize the law, facts, and arguments in your brief in the best way to convince the judge to decide in your favor—isn’t so very different from plotting a story line, inserting clues, and coming up with red herrings for a murder mystery.
Congratulations on the release of Waters of Destruction, the second book in your Orchid Isle Mystery series. Can you please tell me about the series and what readers can expect from Waters of Destruction?
Thank you! In Molten Death, the first book in the Orchid Isle mystery series, Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen have come to the Big Island of Hawai‘i to treat themselves to a well-earned tropical vacation. After the recent loss of her brother in a fiery car crash, Valerie is in sore need of a distraction from her troubles and is looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the delicious food and vibrant culture the state has to offer. But alas, this is not to be, for during one of their first days on-island, Valerie is the sole witness to a boot being covered over by hot, flowing lava. Only, she quickly realizes to her horror, it’s not simply a boot she’s seeing—it’s boot still attached to a human leg.
In book two, Waters of Destruction, Valerie and Kristen have now moved to the Big Island and have bought a house in the charming town of Hilo. As a way to make new friends, Valerie agrees to take a job as bartender at the Speckled Gecko, taking the place of an employee who’s been AWOL for a week. But when his body ends up being pulled from the dangerous Wailuku River (which means “waters of destruction” in Hawaiian), Valerie gets sucked into investigating yet another death.
Having lived half time on the Big Island now for seventeen years, I’ve come to appreciate what a special place this is, because of the mix of peoples and cultures, the flora and fauna, and the active volcanoes. So in addition to crafting a compelling mystery series, one of my biggest desires has been to bring to readers a picture of what the the Big Island is truly like—not for tourists, but for those who actually reside here.
Tell me about some of the characters we’ll meet in the book and series.
Valerie—who turns sixty in Molten Death—is a retired caterer for the film and TV industry in Los Angeles, and her wife Kristen is a retired carpenter. As soon as they buy their new home in Hilo, they adopt their rescue, Pua, who’s what’s called a “poi dog” (i.e., Heinz 57 mixed breed), but looks to be a mix of Italian greyhound and some sort of terrier.
Isaac and Sachiko are their best friends on-island. Kristen—an avid surfer—met Isaac, a biology teacher at a Hilo high school, when he came to L.A. for a science fair with his high school kids and took an afternoon off to go surfing. His partner Sachiko runs the front of the house at the Speckled Gecko, a restaurant down on the Hilo Bayfront, where Valerie takes the job as a bartender. Val and Kristen love hanging out with Isaac and Sachiko, not just because they were both born and raised on the Big Island and therefore bring them local knowledge, but because they’re smart and a bit on the snarky side—and always good fun at a dinner party!
Recipes are included in all of your books. Are you a cook/baker by nature, or is this something you have to work at?
I’ve been obsessed with food and cooking since I was a kid, when my best friend and I would try out recipes from the Time-Life books that would arrive at our houses every few months in the mail. (Remember those—the the hardback edition and the extra spiral-bound book?) This love of all things food never left me, so years later while working as an attorney, I decided to go back to school to get a degree in the culinary arts. (Guess which I liked better—ha!)
Final question. What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
I’d say I enjoy writing dialogue the most—and eavesdropping on others to get inspiration for dialogue: their turns of phrases, dialects, slang, where they pause or use run-on sentences. I find it all endlessly fascinating. Words are wonderful!
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I enjoyed the interview.
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