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Please join us as Penny Manson interviews our past president, Jennifer Morita, about her debut novel, Ghosts of Waikīkī, to be released by Crooked Lane books on November 19.
After the newspaper she works for folds and freelance assignments no longer pay the bills, Maya Wong reluctantly returns to her native Hawaiʻi to ghostwrite controversial land developer Parker Hamilton's biography. But when the Hamilton patriarch is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Maya is unwittingly drawn into the investigation.
Maya’s family and friends aren't happy about her work for Hamilton. And now, with her ex Detective Koa Yamada on the case, she’s forced to contend with the very person she was determined to avoid.
All too soon, Maya is dodging assailants and digging for clues while juggling girls’ nights out with her old BFFs and weekly family dinners. Convinced the police are after the wrong man, Maya is determined to stop the killer before it’s too late.
Exploring timely issues in Hawaiʻi, including locals getting priced out of paradise, Ghosts of Waikīkī is an engrossing, atmospheric mystery in the vein of Jane Pek’s The Verifiers.
Jennifer is a former newspaper reporter, who juggled freelance jobs with being a stay-at-home mom for several years before becoming a writer for the communications department at a local university.
She spent the first six months of the pandemic purging and baking with the rest of the world before giving her lifelong pipe dream of being a mystery author a chance. She wrote while the California wildfires burned and her kids Zoomed through school, figuring she had nothing to lose - not even time.
Her first short story, “Cranes in the Cemetery” was published in the Capitol Crimes 2021 Anthology Cemetery Plots of Northern California. She was a runner up for the Sisters in Crime Eleanor Taylor Bland Award in 2022.
Jennifer is a past president of her local Sisters in Crime chapter and is a member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers.
When she isn’t writing, reading or pushing Girl Scout cookies, she enjoys watching British mysteries, cooking and baking. Aside from leisurely hikes with her family, Zumba and Hot Hula are the only forms of exercise she willingly participates in.
Jennifer lives in California with her husband and two daughters.
To purchase Ghosts of Waikīkī: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1639109390?tag=randohouseinc7986-20
You can follow Jennifer at the following social media links:
Facebook: @authorjenniferkmorita
Instagram: @jenniferkmorita
Twitter/X: @jenniferkmorita
TikTok: @jenniferkmoritawrites
