HANAPEPE — Best-selling author Mike Bond will visit Talk Story Bookstore in Hanapepe at 5 p.m. Friday to present his latest novel, “Saving Paradise.” The book, Bond’s fifth, is an “eco-thriller” focusing on political corruption, corporate greed, shady deals and
HANAPEPE — Best-selling author Mike Bond will visit Talk Story Bookstore in Hanapepe at 5 p.m. Friday to present his latest novel, “Saving Paradise.”
The book, Bond’s fifth, is an “eco-thriller” focusing on political corruption, corporate greed, shady deals and murder, according to the summary.
“The entire book is a plea to defend the last paradises of Hawai‘i,” Bond said. “The murder in the book is a metaphor for what’s happening in Hawai‘i.”
When a beautiful journalist drowns mysteriously off Waikiki, former Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins, now a well-known surfer and international surfing correspondent, quickly gets embroiled in trying to solve her death. What he learns soon targets him for murder or life in prison as a cabal of powerful energy corporations, foreign killers and crooked politicians focus the blame on him, states the summary.
Haunted by memories of Afghanistan, and determined to protect the Hawai‘i he loves from dirty politics tied to huge destructive energy developments, Pono turns to special forces buddies and his own skills to fight his deadly enemies, trying to both save himself and track down her killers.
This fast-moving story shares the author’s inside knowledge of how oil and energy companies and investment banks are trying to control the environmental movement and industrialize Hawai‘i’s last wild places, according to the summary.
Bond said “Saving Paradise” addresses a number of issues which are “central to Kaua‘i,” including the Public Land Development Corporation, genetically modified organisms and the Hawai‘i Superferry.
“Hawai‘i is the pearl that we are crushing into concrete,” Bond said. “It’s extremely important to defend what remains of Kaua‘i.”
Bond is a critically acclaimed novelist, adventure writer, environmental activist, international energy expert, war and human rights journalist and award-winning poet. He has worked in many dangerous, remote and war-torn regions of the world.
The British Broadcasting Corporation called Bond “the master of the existential thriller,” and the Miami Herald said his latest book “grips the reader from the opening chapter and never lets go.”
Talk Story Bookstore is located at 3785 Hanapepe Road. For more information call 335-6469 or visit www.mikebondbooks.com.
