This is a well written mystery and I enjoyed the fact that it was set in Hawaii. It was nice to learn something about a place I’ve never been. Unfortunately I never felt any kind of connection with the main characters.

sapphic-marriage, retired, amateur-sleuth, boatraces, customs-and-belief-systems, contemporary, friends, friendship, glossary, investigations, local-law-enforcement, local-gossip, local-legends, missing-persons, murder, pet-dog, recipes, small-town, small-business, unpleasant-victims, unputdownable*****

Sixty-something Valerie (former caterer) and her wife Kristen (skilled carpenter) have retired from SoCal to Hilo but find the need to continue with being useful and are also interested in new activities. One of those is Valerie fill-in bartending at the local restaurant as the current one seems to have done a runner. Turns out she likes the job and the missing bartender was picked out of the ocean dead several days later. Let the investigating begin (and enjoy the travelogue, too)!
There is a lot of nomenclature and local Pidgin, so I would definitely recommend reading the glossary first, so you don't go down that rabbit hole like I did.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected ebook file from Severn House via NetGalley. Avail Apr 01, 2025.
#WatersofDestruction by @lesliekarst #OrchidIsleMysteriesBk2 @severnhouseimprint
#cozymystery #murdermystery #NetGalley @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble **** Review #booksamillion #bookshop_org #bookshop_org_uk #kobo #Waterstones #crimeFiction #contemporary #Hilo #outriggerRelayRaces #recipes #glossary

I really wanted to like this, it had all the hallmarks of something I would love. But from the first paragraph everything I read was just trying too hard. Constant overdone descriptions of everything to make sure the reader was aware of how much the author knows about the setting which interrupted any kind of flow for the story,

Things introduced and then dropped a page later without any kind of substance. It was painful and I didn't make it past chapter 1.

Leslie Karst has channeled the atmosphere of Hawaii in the second Orchid Isle mystery. Newly retired Valerie and Kristen are adjusting to their new home in Hilo when they get asked to look into a suspicious disappearance. Great fun, and it will make you long for the islands!

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I appreciate seeing more and more cozies with queer main characters where that's not any big deal in the book. I also enjoy the Hawaiian setting. But the mystery doesn't feel all that gripping to me, and it seems like the book is 90% talking. I would perhaps try another book in the series, but I suspect this just isn't my cup of tea.

Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In her second Orchid Isle Mystery, Waters of Destruction, Leslie Karst deftly delivers a plot and characters that have the ring of authenticity regarding Hawai'i's Big Island, where the author and her spouse live for part of each year.

After vacationing on the island, retired spouses Valerie and Kristen have moved to Hilo and into their comfy new home. Looking for opportunities to keep herself busy and to get to know some of their new neighbors, former caterer Valerie agrees to work part-time at the local restaurant. She's filling the slot of one of the bartenders, who has disappeared suddenly after an employee event and is later found drowned. Knowing that Valerie had previously helped solve a murder after a volcano eruption, the restaurant manager asks her to sniff around and see if this was an accident or possibly a murder, and Valerie is happy to comply. At the same time, she and Kristen--the more athletic of the two--are learning the sport of group canoe paddling, and Kristen is helping a new friend build a lanai on her property.

It was interesting getting to know the restaurant employees, as Valerie picks up more and more clues, although nothing--at first--adds up. I appreciated the way the author caught readers up twice on the clues and suspicions Valerie had collected, which made me want to try to figure out the guilty party (although the number of persons of interest and the twisty plot happily prevented me from doing so). I enjoyed being immersed in the culture of Hilo as well, not to mention the food and the special cocktails Valerie created (recipes included at the end of the book). There is even a lengthy glossary of Hawai'ian, pidgin, and local vernacular words and phrases at the end, although I wished I had known it before completing the book. This is a series that has become a must-read for me, and I will definitely be looking for the next in the series.

My thanks to Severn House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

I really enjoyed this as a sequel in the Orchid Isle Mystery series, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed from the first book. I was engaged with the mystery of this book and enjoyed the overall feel of this. Leslie Karst has a strong writing style and was glad everything felt like it was supposed to. I'm excited to read more in this series and from the author.

(I was gifted this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review courtesy of NetGalley)

I really hate, and try to avoid, giving books a one star rating unless I feel I have no choice, and here we are. Honestly, if this weren’t an ARC I was reviewing, I likely would have chosen to DNF as well. The only pro for me was that the book was casually queer revolving around a sapphic married couple and that they just so happened to be gay, but that wasn’t the point or premise of the story. The issue was that I wasn’t invested in the characters, the mystery or the plot. I felt like I didn’t get to know enough about the characters to care about them and there wasn’t any development about them. I could have forgiven that if the mystery completely took me over and kept me hooked but it took a long time to drop and then it wasn’t enthralling to me. I had to force myself to keep reading and when I pick up a mystery, I want it to be a page turner that has me guessing and re-guessing with almost every page or chapter which this just didn’t do. I was really disappointed and letdown and hate that I was. Curious if the precursor was better and the followup was a bust or if the series just isn’t my cup of tea.

Immediately craving an Hilo Sunset and Ube Blondies.
This was a fun and quick read, a cozy thriller that took place in a beautiful setting. Valerie definitely needs ti go into investigation as a side gig to her current one(s).

After a vacation of a lifetime in Hilo, Hawai‘i, retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen have decided to move permanently to the beautiful – if storm-prone – Big Island. The couple are having fun furnishing their new house, exploring their new neighborhood and playing with their new little dog, Pua. But while they’ve made good friends with local restaurant manager Sachiko and her partner Isaac, they can’t help but feel a little lonely.

So when Sachiko begs Val to fill in for a member of her bar team who’s gone AWOL, Val dusts off her cocktail shaker and happily agrees. It’s a great chance to meet more people – and learn the local gossip.

Such as about Hank, the missing bartender, who vanished after a team-building retreat at a local beauty spot a week ago, and hasn’t been seen since. Until, that is, his body turns up at the bottom of the waterfall, and the police seem very interested in where Sachiko was at the time of his death.

Sachiko couldn’t have killed him . . . could she? Val dives into the murky waters of the case, determined to find out.
Loved it. Will recommend to others.