Palmango was founded to tell Florida stories, but we’ve expanded to include another tropical paradise—Hawa’i. The Secret of the Whale Tooth is a sequel to the Crystal Ball Chronicles. The narrator of the Crystal Ball Chronicles, Kate Brennan Royles, and her 12-year-old granddaughter, Erin, appeared at the end of that book as they visited the elderly Lena Clarke in Florida. Lena gives her crystal ball to Erin.
I thought Kate and Erin made an interesting duo—a grandmother-granddaughter detective team. I knew they needed to go on another adventure. Thinking of the 1970s, my own childhood experiences in Hawai’i would be the perfect backdrop to spin up a mystery.
Not only is this a free trip to Hawai’i, complete with recipes to create your own Hawaiian delectables, there are some important cultural touchpoints along the way. Sacred objects are attracting attention from the wrong kind of people. Erin teams up with a local kid, Keoki, to be her fellow detective in their secret quest to solve a robbery.
The two kids live in an analog world with no cellphones, computers, or Google. They rely on their own ingenuity to investigate their suspects. It’s their world of Saturday morning cartoons, comic books, film cameras, and transistor radios. Reading this book transports you back to being twelve again.