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An Eternal Lei: A Leilani Santiago Hawai'i Mystery Kindle Edition
It's the middle of the pandemic and Hawaii has been virtually closed to tourists.
So when Leilani Santiago and her young sisters save a mysterious woman wearing an unusual lei from drowning in Waimea Bay in Kaua‘i, questions abound. Who is she and where did she come from? Leilani suddenly finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when the lei is traced back to her best friend, the very pregnant Courtney Kahuakai, and her family’s flower business.
While the woman is in a medically-induced coma at a local hospital, Leilani sets out to discover her identity and her connections to the island. She is drawn deeper into the mystery, only to stumble into secrets that prove deadly. When Leilani’s investigation puts her family in danger, her survival and the safety of those dearest to her will depend on her sense of ingenuity and the strength of her island community.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherProspect Park Books
- Publication dateMarch 22, 2022
- File size4.6 MB
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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews
Review
“Wryly humorous, well-plotted, and timely without being depressing, An Eternal Lei will inspire daydreams of (post-pandemic) travel to Hawaii.” —Katie Noah Gibson, Shelf Awareness
“Hirahara gives us a multilayered story, rich in island detail.” —Booklist
“Fans of intrepid amateur sleuths will want to see more of Leilani.” —Publishers Weekly
“With a strong sense of place, community, and culture, Hirahara’s follow-up to 2019’s Iced in Paradise opens a window on a Hawai’i unseen by most mainlanders . . . the multilayered central puzzle rivets from start to kindhearted finish.” —Mystery Scene
"Naomi Hirahara’s second novel featuring the multicultural Santiago family from the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i deftly uses COVID-19 as background for an energetic story about how the pandemic has affected tourism, small businesses and the vagaries of families in a tidy plot.” —Sun-Sentinel
“An Eternal Lei returns us to the diverse, beautiful, and complex setting of Hawai’i, and the world of Hirahara’s sharp and utterly relatable heroine, Leilani Santiago. Complicated family dynamics, pandemic issues, a wonderfully multicultural cast, and the unique politics of the island add color and depth to the latest installment of this fantastic mystery series. I can’t wait for the next book and am already searching for the nearest shave ice spot!” —Mia P. Manansala, author of Arsenic and Adobo
“A thrilling cozy with a gutsy young sleuth in authentic, contemporary Hawaii; packed with cultural insights and twisty reveals, it’s paradise in a book.” —Jennifer J. Chow, Lefty Award-Nominated author of the Sassy Cat Mysteries
“Kama‘āina rejoice! Naomi Hirahara has served up a detective who looks, talks and acts like one of us, a true breath of fresh air . . . An Eternal Lei is a cozy with a hardboiled heart, overflowing with Leilani’s cynical observations and introspection and staring down one of the Pacific’s ugliest issues without flinching. It’s a rainbow shave ice complete with azuki beans and ice cream for those of us who like something dark and rich lurking under the pretty colors.” —Scott Kikkawa, Elliot Cades Award winning author of Kona Winds and Red Dirt, and associate editor of The Hawai‘i Review of Books
About the Author
Naomi Hirahara is the Edgar-winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series, including Blood Hina, Strawberry Yellow, Sayonara Slam, and the seventh and final in the series, Hiroshima Boy. She is also the author of the L.A.-based Ellie Rush mystery series, published by Penguin. Her Mas Arai books have earned such honors as the Chicago Tribune's Ten Best Mysteries and Thrillers and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. The Stanford University alumna lives in Pasadena, California.
Product details
- ASIN : B095Z5M7GH
- Publisher : Prospect Park Books
- Accessibility : Learn more
- Publication date : March 22, 2022
- Language : English
- File size : 4.6 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 194 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1684427987
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Book 2 of 2 : Leilani Santiago Hawai'i
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,782 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #9,065 in Amateur Sleuths
- #12,208 in Women Sleuths (Books)
- #25,090 in Women Sleuths (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Naomi Hirahara, born and raised in Southern California, is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series, which features a Japanese American gardener and atomic-bomb survivor who solves crimes (SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI, GASA-GASA GIRL, SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN, BLOOD HINA and STRAWBERRY YELLOW). Books in this series have been translated into Japanese, Korean and French (September 2015 publication date).
MURDER ON BAMBOO LANE, her new mystery series with a female twentysomething LAPD bicycle cop, was released with Berkley Prime Crime in spring 2014. Her next in the series, A GRAVE ON GRAND AVENUE, was released in April 2015.
She also has penned a middle-grade novel, 1001 CRANES, which was chosen as an Honor Book for the Youth Literature of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in 2009.
A former editor of the largest Japanese American newspaper in the U.S., she also has released a number of nonfiction works. A number of her short stories have been included in various anthologies.
For more information, go to her website, www.naomihirahara.com.
Customer reviews
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The Woman in the Surf
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2022Leilani Santiago is a very relatable character! She returned to the islands to help her family in the first book. It was a difficult transition, but in the first novel she made progress in finding her new future in her old home.
In this next volume, the pandemic has eliminated all the financial security she had achieved. She has her aging grandmother and her immune compromised mother to worry about and try to protect. Everyone's life is turned upside down and Leilani has to do her best for her family and friends.
My husband was from the Big Island and we lived on Oahu in the mid-sixties. Over our 46 years of marriage, we travelled around the country and Taiwan. One constant in our lives was meeting other locals and getting together to keep the foods, traditions, and music alive.
Naomi Hirahara's portrayal of the local people, their language, island food, calabash cousins, lending a hand (even though you don't have that much yourself), and the spirit of aloha as a tangible component of Hawai'i is very accurate in my opinion.
Mahalo for writing a book that reflects a truer image of the diversity, struggles, everyday life, and the joy of the local people of Hawai'i. I recommend this novel for its compelling storyline, the characters, and the progress all the ohana makes! I can't wsit.for the next book.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2023Hirahara serves up another sweet mystery. If your looking for a gory, heart-stopping serial killer story, this ain't it. These Santiago mysteries delve as much into the everyday life and environment of the islanders as they do pry apart the crimes. Love the dialect!
- Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2022I’ve read every book written by Naomi Hirahara, I have never been disappointed. MORE PLEASE❤️
- Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2022Not so much a story about 'who done it' like her other books, but a story about family, adoptive & biological, and timely, with the stresses of the pandemic.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2022It’s October 2020, and like most of the island of Kaua’i, Leilani Santiago has been forced to close down her family’s shave ice business. When she and her sisters save a woman from drowning one afternoon, Leilani is very curious since this woman is a stranger. Why was she on the island? With nothing else to do, Leilani starts to investigate. As she does, she begins to wonder if the woman was almost killed or just had an accident. What will she uncover?
I wasn’t sure I was ready to pick up a book set during the pandemic we’ve been dealing with the last couple of years, but I found I enjoyed this one. The pandemic is part of the backdrop, and it avoids many of the controversies we’ve had to deal with. We get several sub-plots, but I found they kept me engaged and didn’t distract from the main mystery. I was engrossed the entire time and couldn’t wait to see how everything was going to be resolved. The characters are strong, and seeing them react to the pandemic as well as the mystery really helped develop them. The characters speak in a form of Pidgin, but after the first few pages, I was used to it, and I had no trouble reading the story. This was a good virtual visit to Hawai’i.
5.0 out of 5 starsIt’s October 2020, and like most of the island of Kaua’i, Leilani Santiago has been forced to close down her family’s shave ice business. When she and her sisters save a woman from drowning one afternoon, Leilani is very curious since this woman is a stranger. Why was she on the island? With nothing else to do, Leilani starts to investigate. As she does, she begins to wonder if the woman was almost killed or just had an accident. What will she uncover?The Woman in the Surf
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2022
I wasn’t sure I was ready to pick up a book set during the pandemic we’ve been dealing with the last couple of years, but I found I enjoyed this one. The pandemic is part of the backdrop, and it avoids many of the controversies we’ve had to deal with. We get several sub-plots, but I found they kept me engaged and didn’t distract from the main mystery. I was engrossed the entire time and couldn’t wait to see how everything was going to be resolved. The characters are strong, and seeing them react to the pandemic as well as the mystery really helped develop them. The characters speak in a form of Pidgin, but after the first few pages, I was used to it, and I had no trouble reading the story. This was a good virtual visit to Hawai’i.
Images in this review
- Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2022If you loved, the food, family, and culture in Arsenic and Adobo, you should be reading this series!
An Eternal Lei is a solid second installment, and we're catching up with Leilani Santiago in the early days of the pandemic. (I didn't know that going in, but it wasn't traumatizing for me and didn't impact my enjoyment of the read). This time around, she saves a drowning woman and uncovers a shady international adoption scheme.
There's a little more family & community drama this time around as everyone navigates living in the early days of the pandemic. I continue to love that this series feels much more local than most books I've read set in Hawaii.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2022An Eternal Lei is a thoroughly enjoyable cozy mystery with a rich sense of the people and places that make up contemporary Kauai.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2023Leilani Santiago is an unlikely heroine on Kauai, her sleuthing stems from her wanting to make things right. This novel dug deep into the interconnectivity and meaning of ohana. In the throes of the pandemic, matters became complicated for Leilani and those close to her. There was no political nonsense in regards to masking, just a sincere small town island perspective with genuine fears and concerns. If a third novel is in the works, I would love to continue to follow the series. Awesome island and ohana vibe.
Top reviews from other countries
- Rita MaeReviewed in Canada on June 12, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars Hawaii true
A good mystery which also discusses the impact of COVID on communities and families.