Hawaii. 1930. Hester Ashlet Murdoch, socially prominent wife of a rising young navy officer, was found battered and bleeding on a lonely beach road. Four local youths are accused of raping her. This was the first and biggest lie in a drama of crime and cover-up that pitted the islands’ native population against the might of the U.S. Navy and the ruling wealth of a white landed aristocracy. And in the end, the façade from that world of power and privilege was ripped away to expose the passions of shame, deceit and betrayal that were poisoning paradise…Condition: spine creased from reading some shelf wear.