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Dark Paradise
Lono Waiwaiole's fourth book is Dark Paradise, Dennis McMillan Publications (February 2009). Mix two local boys who want to control the same drug trade on the Big Island of Hawai`i, throw in some Japanese and Mexican gangsters, add the biggest drug bust in the history of the island and what do you get? A Dark Paradise, indeed.
Wiley's Refrain
Lono Waiwaiole's third book is Wiley's Refrain, St. Martin's Minotaur (December 2005). Life has settled into a comfortable groove for Wiley—he can't shake the melancholy that has marked his life since the murder of his daughter (Wiley's Lament), but at least the law of averages has been reinstated at the poker tables, he spends a lot of time with a beautiful woman who loves him, and all of the people he cares about seem to be doing well.
But the poker pro in Wiley knows that things are not always as they seem, and it doesn't really surprise him when the whole charade blows up in his face. In the course of one day at Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival, a young friend goes missing and Wiley's ex-wife is the victim of a brutal double rape, but Wiley's search for those responsible takes a few turns even Wiley can't predict—including his first visit to Hawai'i, his ancestral homeland, where the streets are just as mean as the ones he walks in Portland.
Once again, Wiley links up with his old friend Leon in a quest for justice, but this time the journey shakes them both to the very core of what they believe about themselves and the world in which they live.
Wiley's Shuffle
Lono Waiwaiole's second book is Wiley's Shuffle, St. Martin's Minotaur (June 2004). In Wiley's world, violence runs deep and loyalty runs even deeper. So when a prostitute named Miriam gets attached to the wrong guy, Wiley leaves the poker table, grabs his best friend Leon and starts looking for a way to shake her loose. Trouble is, the guy is a sociopathic pimp named Dookie who's on the lucky streak of a lifetime and who is starting to feel invincible.
Their quest takes Wiley and Leon to Vegas and L.A.—plus a few desolate, dangerous spots in between—until they reach a brutal, vicious showdown back on the streets of the Portland they all call home. To Wiley, it's more clear than ever that the only things worth knowing are who's on your side and who's got your back.
Wiley's Lament
Lono Waiwaiole's first book Wiley's Lament, St. Martin's Minotaur (March 2003), is a violent, profane and graphic look at a life that has spun off its rails in the wrong part of town, but it is also about remorse, renewal and the flickering possibility of redemption.
The story begins in Seattle on a night in January a few years ago, where Wiley reestablishes that drug dealers care more about their lives than their money. But by the time he gets his cash transfusion back to Portland, he discovers that the daughter he hasn't seen for a year was murdered that same night in a motel room out by the airport.
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