This books falls way short of of what it could have been or what it should have been. Little connection is drawn between the characters in Mitchener's "Hawaii" and the real missionaries. When connections are made, they are rarely pursued except in passing. Even if the book is just about the real history of the missionaries (if so, why would the author even seek to draw a comparison with Mitchener's work?), the historical figures are not explored or developed. The book is organized in a point/counterpoint style that is quite arresting to the reader. A one paragraph exerpt that raises an issue of interest is taken from "Hawaii," and then the author launches into a small but not necessarily relevant essay on whether or not the point is true historically. The entire material is quite dry and littered with misspellings, missing words and questionable grammar. Still, there are a couple of areas where the book delivered what was promised such as the probable historical inspiration for the character Iliki. If you happen upon a copy of this book for ... at a garage sale, buy it. Otherwise, pass.

The book is good for those who have either watched the movie "Hawaii" or read the book by James Michener. The author compares the fiction with the actual historical figures in Hawaiian history. If you would rather just read a more historical account, read "Grapes of Canaan."

I attend Hawaii's first church, Mokuaikaua Church (Congregatonal) on Alii Drive on the Big Island, and meet many visitors who have watched the movie "Hawaii" or read the book by James Michener. While Michener's story gives you a sense of the migrations of peoples to Hawaii, his work is fiction. For example, Michener's missionaries Abner & Jerusha Hale are fictional people. He had them arrive at Maui, whereas the true missionaries arrived in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island at a different time from Michener's novel. This book gives the facts that show us the real story is more compelling than the fiction. To get the pure Hawaii story without comparisons to Michener's work, check out "Hawaii's Missionary Saga" by LaRue Piercy.

On a recent trip to the islands we bought this as it was the only guidebook for Kauai in our book store. When we got to Kauai we found the information to be superficial and not up to date. While there we bought other books-one by Kathy Morey, another by Robert Smith, etc. that were very informative, so we got by. Don't buy this guidebook...a waste of money!

Because I live in Hawaii and travel the islands a lot, I check amazon.com frequently and have built up quite a library on the islands. This book, as a reviewer said, does read like one author spent a day on the north shore gathering free handouts, PR brochures, menus, etc. while the other did the same on the south shore. Then they tried to write a guidebook.But there is a lot of material in it even if it is missing depth of knowledge about Kauai and guidance from personal experience. The other reviewers who live in Hawaii are on target otherwise.

We used this book as our primary resource while I was pregnant with our first child in 1999. We really relied on the restaurant reviews, with a few exceptions, they were right on. The recommendations from the two authors for activities were really helpful for me, as I was limited because of pregnancy and needed to find the right level activity to fit my condition. I am surprised others did not find this book helpful. Perhaps it is good for those traveling with constraints, like kids or pregnancy.

Could we please have some sort of moratorium on the plot device of a hunky young naval officer, son of a gruff-but-ultimately-loving senior navy admiral, in a doomed love affair with a Japanese girl in Hawaii in the last days before the Pearl Harbor attack? It probably wasn't original when it featured in the 1976 film "Midway," and it has also been a major part of at least two recent murder mysteries -- this one, and Max Allan Collins' "The Pearl Harbor Murders" (2001), a book that has more in common with this one than just the title.

Considering that Collins' mystery and this one are built around the same set of real-life facts, events, and personalities, I was surprised by how much poorer a job Walker did with it all than Collins did. Some of the things "historical figures" do in this book struck me as uncharacteristic, based on what I've read about them in real life. One or two, in fact, seem to show up for no other reason than to have one more "historical figure" cameo. And speaking of "uncharacteristic," how likely is it that a naval intelligence specialist would reveal so much of her operation to a reporter she's barely met? And was naval intelligence HQ at Pearl Harbor really so easy to break into (by crawling through the air ducts, speaking of clichés)?

Without giving anything away, I'll say that one fairly substantial subplot involving an "historical figure" is largely irrelevant to the novel. It could have been left out altogether without weakening the narrative. As another reviewer notes, everything that happens in this book before the action shifts to Hawaii could have been summarized in much less space -- especially since much of what we're left with from that section are unresolved plot threads. As it is, the title murder doesn't even happen until the second half of the book. Instead, we get long descriptions of irrelevancies, like one character getting dressed, or another drinking a glass of milk.

I have some other problems with the plot too, but listing them would give away too much of the solution to the mystery.

Finally, one of the things I really liked about the Collins book was the way it wove the "atmospherics" of pre-war Hawaii into the story. Walker, on the other hand, has little of this. He can tell the story, but doesn't really invoke the "feel" of Hawaii nearly so well. I was hoping for much better, and I was really disappointed.

I began this book with great anticipation, but ended with much disappointment. I thought the book had a good premise; however, it just didn't work for me.

In this story everything that happens before Gwen goes to Pearl Harbor could be left out, or summerized in a sentence or two because none of it is explained or really makes any difference in the end.

Who is Charlie Bauer and what is his connection to Gwen's friend Jill? We never find out.

Who exactly did Gwen beat over the head with her unbrella? Don't know.

How did anyone find out that Quon had given the intercepted message to Sammy and Sammy in turn to Gwen? No telling.

Who ran down Sammy and Quon, and whatever happened to Sammy? The list of unanswered questions goes on and on.

But perhaps the biggest question of all is: Why would Gwen wear a NAVY skirt with BLACK pumps?

All kidding aside, I would give this author another chance. The parts of this story that were good were very good. It was clear the author researched his subject and for the most part it was well thought out and clear. I just wanted all the loose ends tied up by the end.

The book was very interestisng Jim Walker did a very good using historical characters to tie into to the entire book and I thought that he did a very good writting the book. The characters that are used are just right because there are not to many but there are just enough so that everything that is taken place is completed. Also I thought he does a very good job bringing up the question that the goverment may have covered this up.

This book is a complete waste of the paper it is printed on. The photographs are trite, ordinary, and utterly lacking in creativity and imagination. Any high-school photography student has done more interesting work. In addition, the format is deliberately deceiving. You get to pay for a large-format book with snapshot-size photos. Most of the photos are 4x6 inches, many are smaller, and there is only one photo every other page. Skip this one.

While Kim Taylor Reece is obviously a fine photographer, the book itself is lousy. While the cover is typical of both the quality & nature of the rest of the photos, the ones inside are - for the most part - just way too small. One would expect something more than mostly postcard-size pictures in a book 10" x 11". Too bad...

Kim Taylor Reece is by far the leader among photographers currently working in the time-honored tradition of images of Hawaiian women. He brings a rare sense of humor, amazing timing, superb tonality (a la Ansel Adams), natural settings, authentic garb, and eroticism (where this collection opens up new ground) to the subject. True, the images could've been enlarged by shrinking the borders, but anyone really enthused about these works may obtain very large prints from Mr. Reece. As a photographer myself, I'd be hard pressed to improve on any aspect of "Wahine". Considering the reasonable price, I would recommend this book to anyone mesmerized by the unique beauty of the women of Hawaii.

I found this book to be too generalized and too vague. I buy a guidebook to get educated and situated and I care about well defined directions. This book contained none of the above. I'm giving it a one for its restaurant listings.

Fodor's Exploring Hawaii is a useful guide, packed with a wealth of information. I like the "exploring" series because the guides have lots of maps, along with pictures, history, art, architecture, and interesting sidebars.

This guide gives an overview of all the main islands, with well-rounded information for all types of travelers. There are tips on beaches, shopping, surfing, birding, etc. The book is slim, so fits easily in a backpack or bag, and includes travel facts with telephone numbers for tourist areas, hotels and restaurants.

The contents we about the last ruler of Hawaiii and it was very exquisite, but lacked in information

"The Last Hawaiian Queen" is an attractive introduction to the life of Lili'uokalani for young readers, a welcome addition to the library of multicultural children's books. No one interested in Hawai'i should bypass this charming book, with its historic illustrations and interesting content. The book does have some minor faults: incorrect pronunciations and the inclusion of one photo that is supposed to represent "modern hula dancing" - the photo is regrettably of a woman in Tahitian costume, which has nothing to do with hula. But any sympathetic treatment of this neglected subject is welcome. By all means buy this book.

Very simple intro to Hawaiian rock art. Perhaps best suited for grade school level. Inadvertently promotes destruction of rock art by "rubbings". A better book would be Cox & Stasack's "Petroglyphs of Hawaii", available from the Bishop Museum Press.

This is a good introduction to the subject in Hawaii. Easy reading and informative. Not a good read for rabid conservationists. In addition I would recommend the Hawaiian Petroglyphs by Cox...

Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport by Ben Finney and James D. Houston, which calls itself 'the first book to chart surfing's Pacific origins in the context of Polynesian culture,' has its juiceless roots in Finney's mid-Sixties master's thesis at the University of Hawaii. Written without apparent enthusiasm or verve, the book plods along, its undistinguished text style flattening what should be a colorful, vital, and fascinating history. For the 30th anniversary addition, the authors decided not to bring the book up to date, a strategy which might have worked had the original been stronger. But Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, at a slim 117 pages, could badly use some lively additional material. In its present form, it is no classic.

Though the book contains a variety of prints of traditional Hawaiian surfing practices and customs, there are surprisingly few historical photos, and less than a handful from the post-Forties period. Though most of the photos included are excellent, a vivid photo documentary Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport is not.

The book may be useful to students or novice researchers, but most of the information contained here can be found elsewhere, and in brighter, more stimulating form. The book does include interesting maps of the most heavily-used surfing areas in ancient times, a pronunciation guide, an appendix of Hawaiian surfing terms, and observations of men and women surfing by Mark Twain and Jack London as they witnessed it in 1872 and 1911.

This is a great book with lots of awesome pictures, this book is great, I really recommend it!

The Eyewitness Guides are an oustanding series, so I bought this one without a second thought. Alas, this seems more like a placeholder than a serious attempt at writing a guidebook - a kind of "watch this space" advertisement masquerading as a book. It's so thin, in fact, that the cover seems to sag; the spine is thicker than the pages! The coverage of Oahu is decent, so if you only plan to go to Honolulu, the book might be worthwhile. But the coverage of Kauai (where we spent most of our time) and the Big Island were very poor. I'd very highly recommend the "Ultimate Kauai Guidebook" for Kauai instead.

I am a big fan of Dorling Kindersley Travel Guides, so I was greatly disappointed when I received this pamphlet sized guide to all of Hawaii. It contained slightly more information than I would expect from airport brochures on arrival. With roughly 10 picture covered pages per island, the guide is attractive, but not very useful.

I always use the Eyewitness travel books when I travel to new places. These books are concise and very reader-friendly. The Hawaii guide was extremely useful in planning our honeymoon in Hawaii: we used it to plan all of our activities and were very pleased with the results. Some things are outdated (such as times of Lu'au on Kauai), but overall this book is great.

This instant-expert in Hawaiiana is evidently one of those people who move to Hawaii and think "it's much too good for the Hawaiians so I'll sell as much of it as I can". The photography is good but so many of the descriptions are soooooo wrong that I looked through it in slack-jawed amazement. Don't fall for this phoney-baloney aloha - the real Hawaii is not for sale, no matter how many books you write badly about it.

Sixty dollars spent for a new cover, some corrections in the index and a general increase in values is about all that is new in this edition. If you have the older one, don't bother! I felt cheated.

I came across this book in my hotel lounge on the North Shore of Kaui last week, and couldn't put it down. So I've come looking to buy it here. Although it's designed for collectors (which I am not), and places emphasis on the values of the artifacts pictured, it's also designed to chronicle the unique history of our exotic Hawaiian Islands. Beautifully laid out, it includes images of picture postcards, Hawaiin shirt designs, garment labels, wood carvings, and glorious Hawaiian quilts - all accompanied by just enough historical lore to make it a very smart picture book indeed!