Murders of Conveyance

Murders of Conveyance
308 Pages
ISBN 978-1-932926-72-9

I hope you will enjoy Murders of Conveyance, which has just won First Place for Fiction, Adventure-Drama in the 2019 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards!

The First Annual Aloha Scavenger Hunt is about to begin and journalist Natalie Seachrist and her life partner, private investigator Keoni Hewitt, are joining in the fun. Thanks to seaside neighbors they have christened The Ladies, they’re not worried about their feline companion Miss Una, who has a way of finding her own adventures. Before departing for their Honolulu hotel, Natalie experiences a dream of a whodunit film noire. Immersed in the action herself, she exits a vintage elevator, finds a man’s body lying in the hallway of a mid-1950s hotel, and watches an elegant woman search an adjacent room.

Returning from a day of scavenging through Chinatown, Natalie and Keoni learn that a man was murdered near their hotel suite. Staring at the taped outline of the victim—and straw hat perched against the wall—Natalie realizes the scene eerily parallels what she recognizes was not a dream, but one of her recurring visions. When Keoni’s former partner, Honolulu Police detective John Dias, displays the deceased’s photo, she quickly identifies the elderly Chinese man clad in a white linen suit. Knowing the value of her prescient gift, the Lieutenant asks Natalie and Keoni to quietly observe activities in the scavenger hunt as it continues across O`ahu to locales like the Pali Lookout and an ancient heiau.

Natalie’s subsequent full-color visions reveal that the murder she envisioned occurred in Honolulu’s Chinatown, that that victim was Chinese, and the perpetrator was a tall woman wearing a red suit. When a false scavenger hunt clue hints at the location of a priceless Kuan Yin statue, Natalie calls on her friend Pearl Wong for help in analyzing text that resembles the Tao Te Ching. Following a Chinese New Year feast, Natalie, Keoni, and Lieutenant Dias tour a building resembling the hotel in her vision. They learn the building had been a boutique hotel and that the current owner’s granduncle disappeared in the 1950s. Is this the man Natalie saw lying in a narrow hallway nearly sixty-years earlier? Could his death by a single gunshot be connected to that of the Chinese professor recently murdered in the hallway of another Honolulu hotel? And what of the false clue’s reference to hidden treasure? Are these coincidences? Or, has Natalie’s visioning revealed a murderer with long hidden secrets?

Jeanne Burrows-Johnson

About Jeanne Burrows-Johnson (Hawaii Author)

Jeanne Burrows-Johnson

My writing embraces my life experiences in the performing arts, education, and marketing. My inspiration for storytelling is rooted in theatrical training during my youth and grew with the colorful tales shared by myriad characters in my life. I moved to Hawaii in 1973, where I taught performing arts classes and helped run Highland Games. Academically, I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Hawaii and membership in Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Alpha Theta I am also a member of the National Writers Union, Sisters in Crime, Arizona Mystery Writers; and the British Association of Teachers of Dancing, Highland Division. While completing coursework toward a Master of Arts degree (concentration, the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945-1954), I worked as a teaching assistant in the World Civilization program of the history department of the University of Hawaii. For many years I have provided marketing advice to entrepreneurs, executives, authors, and artists.

Some of my authored and co-authored work has appeared in: Broker World; Newport This Week, the Hawaii Medical Journal, and, The Rotarian. I also co-authored and served as art director and indexer of UNDER SONORAL SKIES, PROSE AND POETRY FROM THE HIGH DESERT [print, e-book and e-audio editions]. Having been a resident of Hawaii for 20 years, it’s not surprising that the Natalie Seachrist mysteries are set in its lush and multicultural environment. While sampling Island life and pan-Pacific history, my readers join in the heroine’s contemplation of haunting visions and puzzling deaths. The award-winning PROSPECT FOR MURDER and MURDER ON MOKULUA DRIVE have been joined by MURDERS OF CONVEYANCE. This third book in the series takes place during a Chinese New Year scavenger hunt across Oahu as Natalie, Keoni, and Miss Una explore two murders separated by sixty years.

You’ll find Island recipes, a comprehensive glossary of terms included in the mysteries and more information about Jeanne’s projects at my author website. There you can also learn about CONVERSATIONS WITH AUNTIE CAROL, A SERIES OF HAWAIIAN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS. Caroline Kuliaikanuukapu Wilcox DeLima Farias was the grandniece of Hawaiian revolutionary Robert W. K. Wilcox, the cousin of Johanna Wilcox [the first woman registered to vote in Hawaii] and a performer of hula awana who was dancing at the Moana Hotel in Waikīkī on December 6, 1941. There’s also a link to my blog that helps authors and other creative professionals examine issues in shaping, refining, and marketing their work. Please use the contact forms on my websites to drop me a note . . .