If truth is stranger than fiction, then this book is the strangest you will ever read. James Dooley, a former investigative reporter for The Honolulu Advertiser, KITV 4 News and Hawaii Reporter, details public corruption and criminality in Hawai‘i during the 70’s and 80’s. A lot of Dooley’s sleuthing formed the basis of the original essay called “Broken Trust,” printed in the old Honolulu Star-Bulletin and later published as a book. Dooley’s gripping memoirs of ties among celebrities, Teamsters, politicians and judges weaves a broad web of “how things were done in Hawai‘i.”
Advertiser readers will remember crime stories about Kukui Plaza, Bishop Estate Trustees and a gangland hit on the son of Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Charles Marsland, Jr., but Dooley’s editors scrubbed some of his stories, and information, connections and associations he reveals is this memoir might be surprising. As Dooley puts it, “The stories stood on their own, but like stands of bamboo, there was a dense root system underneath that stretched over time and distance, producing new shoots in surprising places.”
This very well written book will grab your attention. Don’t pick it up until you clear your calendar — it’s a page-turner! Available for $18.99 from UH Press; paperback and Kindle from Amazon.com.
