Molten Death

Severn House, April 2024

Summary: For many years, now retired appellate attorney and chef Leslie Karst cranked out food-themed mysteries through her Sally Solari series, the most recent of which, A Sense for Murder, hit the shelves in August 2023. Last year, Karst also published a memoir crafted around a meal she once cooked for the late Justice Ginsberg, Justice Is Served: A Tale of Scallops, the Law, and Cooking for RBG.

Now one of the SLS alumni community’s most prolific writers is back with another mystery novel: Molten Death, the first book in Karst’s Orchid Isle series, is set in Hilo, Hawai’i and introduces a feisty LGBTQ+ couple who swap surfing lessons for sleuthing sessions. Retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen are on vacation on the Big Island. One morning, they set out to see an active lava flow, and Valerie is mesmerized by the mass of orange and red creeping over the field of black rock. Spying a boot in the distance, she strides off alone, pondering how it could have gotten there, only to realize to her horror that the boot is still attached to a leg—which is slowly being engulfed by the lava. Determined to prove what she saw, and get justice for the unknown victim, Valerie launches her own investigation. But, thrown into a Hawaiian culture far from the luaus and tiki bars of tourist magazines, she soon begins to fear she may be the next one to end up entombed in shiny black rock.

Praise: “Karst’s first Orchid Isle novel is part murder mystery, part vividly evocative, colorful sketch of Hawaii and its history, geography, tradition, culture, food, language, and people. Armchair travelers and mystery aficionados alike will find it entertaining” —Booklist