Deborah Turrell Atkinson Books In Order

Primitive Secrets

An exciting new voice richly and suspensefully evokes modern and ancient Hawaii…
When Storm Kayama walks into her lucrative Honolulu law firm one morning, she’s shocked and grieved to find her adopted uncle at his desk, stiff and cold. Years before, Miles Hamasaki had fulfilled a promise to Storm’s father and brought her to be raised with his own family. But, as questions surround Miles’ death and her adopted family begins to close ranks, Storm suspects that he has been murdered. Heading to the Big Island for a weekend escape from escalating pressures, she narrowly escapes a terrible accident. Storm takes refuge in the home of her Aunt Maile, a traditional Hawaiian healer, and Uncle Keone, a paniolo on the huge Parker Ranch. There she encounters a legend from her youth and a family totem, or aumakua, which Aunt Maile promises will protect her. As Storm struggles to heal her own childhood wounds and bring justice to Hamasaki’s killer, she also comes to grip with the rifts in her own life and culture. From the winding cane roads of Hamakua to the seedy side of Honolulu’s Chinatown, with a deft juxtaposition of a bustling Honolulu against the island’s legends and wild beauty, Atkinson reveals a Hawaii that few visitors ever see.

The Green Room

Storm Kayama needs to build her clientele, so when surf promoter Marty Barstow’s wife Stephanie walks into her new law office, Storm agrees to represent her, despite her distaste for a bitter divorce situation.

When Stephanie’s son Ben, a promising surfer, invites her to O’ahu’s North Shore for a contest, Storm jumps at the chance. Not only will it be a thrill to observe the meet, but Storm will also have the opportunity to watch a distant cousin compete. Nahoa Pi’ilani has grown from a mischievous kid to a surfer of international renown, and he seems to have put the trouble that once brewed between their families behind him.

Then a child delivers a package to Nahoa containing an ancient Hawaiian weapona wooden club encircled with shark’s teeth. Storm recognizes the lei o mano. It’s a threat, a call to battle.
Events soon suck her into a vortex of escalating peril. As if she were in The Green Roomthe underwater space where tons of churning water can imprison a surferStorm is buffeted and disoriented by local legend, greed, and cutthroat competition and must confront not only a vicious killer but a haunting incident from her past.

Fire Prayer

Storm Kayamas old high school friend, Tanner Williams, wants a favor. Hes asked her to come to Molokai to make sure his ex wife is taking good care of his adolescent son, a newly diagnosed diabetic. In the meantime, Storms law partner and lover, Ian Hamlin, is investigating the possibility that a Molokai kayaking companys negligence played a part in the disappearance of Brock Liu, the son of an Oahu shipping magnate. It looks like a great excuse for Storm and Hamlin to get away from Honolulu for the weekend. But Storm soon finds that Tanner has bigger problems than he let on, including his bitter wife Jenny Williams, a history of mental illness, and ties to a local protest group linked to an unsolved ten year old homicide. A few hours after Storms visit to Jennys home, twelve year old Luke Williams finds his mother dead on their living room floor. Luke calls the police, then he disappears. Storm believes Luke may have seen his mothers killer and is in grave danger from both the murderer and his fluctuating blood glucose levels. Her chase after Lukeand answersleads through the dense rainforests, pristine beaches, and untamed wilds of Molokai. Are Brock Lius disappearance and Jenny Williams death linked to the old homicide?

Pleasing the Dead

Some nasty predators dwell in paradise, and they aren t all hiding in the azure waters. The day attorney Storm Kayama arrives in Kahului to help Lara Farrell set up her new dive shop, someone bombs a restaurant. When one of Lara’s employees, a recent Japanese immigrant, kills himself and one of his young daughters, Storm begins to ask questions.
The tentacles of the Yakuza, the dangerous, Japanese organized crime group, grip local businesses, real estate, and politics. Cunning and deadly, the clan leaders exploit underage women and eliminate anyone who dares face up to them.
Storm finds herself up against a lethal and faceless enemy, in a place where disposing of a victim is easy as dumping her in shark infested waters.
But who is hunting whom? In a struggle to the death, Storm begins to realize that surviving doesn t always mean living. For some, the ghosts of the past may be more painful than the anguish of the present.
Hawaii lawyer Storm Kayama must battle against the yakuza’s presence and an ancient adherence to tradition to save more young girls from a terrible fate.