Oahu, Hawaii, 1972. After the death of his beautiful wife, Malia, in a drunken accident he caused, Hank Pualoa is sentenced to jail for six months. During his incarceration, his wife's widowed mother cares for his four- year-old daughter, Leilani, and 18-month-old son, Kekoa. When she finally brings them to visit him after refusing to do so for several months, Hank is overjoyed. But his happiness is shattered when Tutu Eme informs Hank he will never see them again, that he does not deserve to be their father after killing their mother. So on the day of his release, and wanting what's best for his children, Hank leaves the island.

Ten years later, Kekoa witnesses a horrific event that will send him on the run from the only home he's known, fearing for his life every day. Taking refuge wherever he can, Kekoa encounters some interesting people living on the streets of Chinatown, until he finally finds a home with a Japanese baker and his wife, who treat him as the son they never had. But Kekoa is always fearful of discovery and constantly on the alert for danger. And well he should be, for his life is in peril.

Not long after Kekoa runs away, his tutu (grandmother) dies and his sister, Leilani, is placed with a foster family, who enroll her in a private school. Though Lani is lonely with no ohana (family) around, she flourishes in the loving environment. But she is always looking for Kekoa in the people she sees and longs for the day they can be together again. And what has happened to their father after all these years? Will he ever come home?

Hank is closer than anyone knows, and it will take his timely intervention to save his beloved ohana, as well as the myriad of people involved in their lives.

I loved this story! The authors write with such eloquent detail, you can almost feel the island breezes and see the breathtaking scenery. I've been to Hawaii numerous times and lived there as a child, so I was familiar with many of the places described. This is an uplifting story of family and love, as well as being an extremely suspenseful novel with a very satisfying ending.

Book Summary

When Hank Pualoa drives drunk, killing his beautiful wife, he tears apart his Hawaiian family (ohana) and leaves the Islands in shame. His children thrive with their grandmother until 12-year-old Kekoa witnesses the murder of Big John, his loving uncle. The murderer stalks him, plotting to kill his only witness. Kekoa flees, plunging into a hand-to-mouth life in the sugarcane fields, the Chinatown streets, and as a baker's helper to a Japanese couple. A stray black Lab becomes his only friend. He's lost his sister, Leilani, to a foster home, where she falls in love but yearns for her family. And will their father ever return? Cry Ohana vibrates with local color and breathtaking scenery. But danger lurks everywhere - at a Filipino wedding; at a Maui resort; and amid the Big Island's volcanic steam vents. Blackmail and betrayal erupt as the family struggles to reunite and bring down the killer.