Nisei Veterans Memorial Center to host an afternoon with author Scott Kikkawa

The Nisei Veterans Memorial Center will host “An Afternoon with the Author,” featuring Scott Kikkawa on July 1.

The event starts at 1:30 p.m. and will be hybrid with in-person seating, as well being on Zoom and Facebook Live.

Scott Kikkawa will share the backstory to his newest Francis “Shiek” Yoshikawa mystery “Char Siu” published by Bamboo Ridge Press.

Meticulously researched, the mystery series (Kona Winds, Red Dirt and Char Siu) is set in 1950s Territorial Hawai‘i and features Honolulu Police Department’s only Japanese American homicide detective, World War II veteran Francis Hideyuki Yoshikawa.

Nisei Veterans Memorial Center’s “An Afternoon with the Author” invites published fiction and non-fiction writers from around Hawaiʻi and the mainland each month to talk about their work, the story behind the story, and their personal journey while writing their book.

“Scott Kikkawa’s Char Siu grabs you by the throat right away and doesn’t ever let go.” said Frank Zafiro, author of the River City series. “Kikkawa has accomplished the masterful feat of immediately embroiling the reader in a fascinating time and place. Frankie Yoshikawa is a flawed, complex, and ultimately sympathetic protagonist whose view of the world keeps things interesting. He has plenty to examine- not only vice and murder, but a mixture of different cultures.

“If traditional noir is what you’re missing, Char Siu will take you on the ride you’re looking for,“ Zafiro added.

The event is free, but seating for the in-person talk and book signing is limited. To register call the office at 808-244-6862 (NVMC). A limited number of  copies of “Char Siu” are available at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center. 

About the Author: 

A product of Hawaiʻi Kai in East Honolulu, Scott Kikkawa writes noir detective stories set in postwar Hawaiʻi, featuring 442nd veteran Nisei Detective Sergeant Francis “Sheik” Yoshikawa. His critically acclaimed debut murder mystery, Kona Winds (Bamboo Ridge Press), was released at the end of 2019 and spent six months on the Small Press Distribution Fiction Bestsellers List.

Red Dirt, his second full-length novel published in 2022, was published two years later. Both were featured in Honolulu Magazine’s list of “Essential Hawaiʻi Books You Should Read.” Winner of an Elliot Cades Award for Literature and honored with a selection for one of the “Other Distinguished Stories of 2021” in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense anthology, the New York University alumnus is currently a federal law enforcement officer and lives with his family in Honolulu. He serves as a columnist and an Associate Editor for The Hawaiʻi Review of Books.