Against the Law (1995)

Michael C. Eberhardt's Against the Law is the latest in a long line of thrillers capitalizing on the recent vogue for pitting indigenous peoples' rights (this time tribal Hawaiians) against moneygrubbing, land-stealing Anglos. To start, the governor of the island paradise is murdered in a particularly nasty, if traditional, way, and an ancient local leader is indicted for the crime. The cast of characters expands to include a lawyer who, though white, was raised by the defendant; his alcoholic brother; his ambitious colleague-cum-fiancé and their even more ambitious boss; and the son and daughter of the old man. The plots tootle along for the first half of the book but pick up speed toward the end, and the last few chapters are packed with more twists than a Chubby Checker song. Still, the honest-DA-in-a-bed-of-snakes theme is an old one, and there isn't much, including a requisite love-and-betrayal subplot, that '90s it up. Aside from the change of typical venue, this one is pretty much by the book. B-

-- Vanessa V. Friedman