The Scent of Waikiki (Trouble in Paradise)
Cozy Mystery
9th in Series
Satori (July 19, 2018)
Print Length: 330 pages

Synopsis

Honolulu landlord Wilson McKenna can smell a scam from across the room. So when one of his tenants loses everything in a work-at-home scam involving a new perfume, he’s shocked. With his wedding just weeks away, McKenna has to make a tough decision. Does he evict a woman who’s down on her luck? Or take time out from wedding planning to help his tenant?

Turning the case over to his PI-in-training friend Chance Logan seems like the perfect solution—until Chance tells McKenna he needs a wingman for a visit to fragrance entrepreneur Skye Pilkington-Winchester. McKenna’s sure he can keep everyone happy by helping Chance this one time. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems, and soon McKenna’s up to his board shorts in hot water. His tenant’s simple fragrance scam might involve industrial espionage, Skye’s assistant is murdered, and McKenna’s bride-to-be accuses him of having cold feet.

As McKenna and Chance dig deeper, it seems so much of what they’re being told doesn’t pass the sniff test. And the only way to get his life back is to find the dead girl’s missing boyfriend, unmask a killer, and finish up in time for the wedding. Other than that, it’s just another day in paradise.

Guest Post

Behind the story of The Scent of Waikiki

Many of the mystery readers I know say they like it when a book informs them about a subject. I’m certainly one of them. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy being a writer who follows the advice, write what you want to know. Something new — isn’t that what we all want when we read a story?

In a foodie mystery, it’s new recipes. For medical thriller, of course we’ve got to have an operating room or DNA research. Let’s face it, most of us readers are nosy. It’s one of the reasons so many protagonists in cozy mysteries are the same way. After all, if those protagonists weren’t constantly asking, “what if?”, how would they become involved in all those murders the cops seem clueless to solve?

For the McKenna Mystery series, I like to find subjects that impact the islands. This time, however, the subject of fragrances seemed to rise to the top. While not specific to Hawaii, this worldwide industry created a perfect opportunity for industrial espionage, work-at-home scams, and the always popular subject of murder. When you consider that a new perfume has the potential to be worth millions of dollars, the idea is not farfetched at all. So in The Scent of Waikiki, a new, pheromone perfume—a love potion, if you will—is at the heart of the story.

Sniffing around fragrances

Once I dove into the world of fragrances, I learned the industry started in the south of France in the sixteenth century. It began as an industry of tightly controlled family-owned companies. Most employees were relatives, but outsiders were hired and they typically worked for the same company their entire life.

What did “tightly controlled” mean? Trade secrets. A perfumer never divulged his formulas because it was, as we call it today, his competitive advantage. Today, product formulas are still critical elements for any perfumer. But they’re much harder to protect.

Did you know that with today’s modern scientific equipment and methods, it’s entirely possible to reverse engineer a fragrance? And actually, it’s legal. There are other products that are legally protected from this practice of backing into a product’s formula, but fragrances have no such protection.

Spinning the web for murder

Of course, the moment I read about reverse engineering a fragrance, I knew there was a way to link perfume with murder. The secret went back to how the industry began—small companies that jealously guarded their trade secrets. The next logical step was to put a lucrative product into jeopardy.

How was I going to get McKenna, my protagonist in The Scent of Waikiki, pulled into a possible case of industrial espionage and murder? Now an apartment manager, McKenna’s “nosy factor” comes from his former profession as a skip tracer. In those days, he saw plenty of scams and was always fascinated by them—and that was just the opening I needed.

McKenna starts out knowing little about the industry, but when he’s approached by one of his tenants with a story about how she lost money in a scam involving a hot new perfume, he’s hooked. Along with his PI-wannabe friend Chance Logan, McKenna begins a journey down a twisty path in which the truth appears to be a very loose concept.

What about you? Do you enjoy learning about new subjects when you read? I look forward to hearing from you!

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About the Author

Terry Ambrose is a former skip tracer who only stole cars when it was legal. He’s long since turned his talents to writing mysteries and thrillers. Several of his books have been award finalists and in 2014 his thriller, “Con Game,” won the San Diego Book Awards for Best Action-Thriller. He’s currently working on the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery series.

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