Rating: 3.75/5 Stars

The beginning of the novel immediately draws you in since Mrs. Stanford, based on the actual woman, has survived a poisoning attempt. As a widower to the powerfully rich Leland Standford and a bereaved parent, we learn how she has turned to spiritualism to feel comfortable being alone in the living world. The intensity created from the initial poisoning events quickly dwindles as the slow-paced plot takes time to explain the other two perspectives before moving Mrs. Stanford along to the Moana Hotel in hopes to escape her perpetrator.

Mrs. Stanford takes immediate liking to ‘Iliahi, an employee, upon arrival at the Moana Hotel and requests that she show her around the island. I love that the author wrote ‘Iliahi with such pride in her Hawaiian culture as it is very apparent in these scenes and inspired me to learn more. Additional insight comes from ‘Iliahi’s journal entries that describe how she deals with the recent US annexation in addition to her mother’s leprosy diagnosis and the death of her father. Further exploration of this could have added another layer to the relationship between Mrs. Standford and ‘Iliahi since they both are grieving family members. I think this would have strengthened the mysterious ending to the spiritual séance and fully reinvigorate the thriller intensity created at the beginning of the story. I felt like it was slightly obvious who the perpetrator was, which shifts tension to how they get away with it. The court proceedings are extremely brief and prompts the reader to be excited about the 2005 timeline with Zoe; however, I personally did not enjoy this perspective as much as the other two.

Zoe is an unconfident author attending a writer’s convention at the Moana Hotel. Spiritual events begin to happen to her; thus, compelling her to do investigative work in hopes to bring justice. I think this plotline had so much potential, but was muddled with the character attending writer workshops. Don’t get me wrong, I did find those chapters interesting, but I am not sure they add to this particular story. I personally would have liked Zoe to have experienced even more spiritual events and developed a deeper connection to Hawaii rather than trying to balance writing her next best-selling novel.