Hawai'i

A nine-term U.S. senator and political patriarch is dead, leaving Hawai'i at a crossroads: crumbling public education at all levels, a crystal meth epidemic, and class divisions so deep that even State Senator Russell Lee has to scramble to avoid eviction from his family's dream home. When an illegal gambling debt puts him further in the hole, Russell's only way out is to go all in, joining forces with an up-and-coming developer, an underworld kingpin, and a Chinese casino magnate.  Their goal?  To sway an electorate easily distracted by UH football into rolling the dice on the biggest legislative gamble in the state's history. Russ lays it all on the line in a battle that pits him against the "anointed" Democratic party favorite, an entrenched anti-development movement, and the long-lost righteous Hawaiian blood-brother he must convince to join him in the name of helping his people. From the summit of Mauna Kea to the crowded shores of Waikiki, from the State Capitol to the seedy backstreets of Honolulu, Mark Panek leaves out nothing in this scathing portrait of 21st-century paradise.