Shattered Palms

(Paradise Crime Mysteries, Book 6)

By: Toby Neal

Narrated by: Sara Malia Hatfield

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Maui is lush mountains, cloud forest and exquisite birdsong - but for Detective Lei Texeira, arrows break that peace. Someone is stalking poachers that are capturing Maui's rarest birds, and Lei pursues the case with her usual leap-first, look-later style - but will she be able to catch a killer, save the birds, and still make it to her own wedding? Shattered Palms is a roller coaster ride from the top of Haleakala to the beach and back again, with extinction at stake.

©2014 Toby Neal (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Toby Neal creates a captivating balance of the beauty of the islands contrasted with the ugliness of murder, and complicated by the trials of Lei's personal life. A must-read for Neal fans." (Thomas K. Matthews, author of Rejection)

Shattered palms

This book was enjoyable and interesting. The characters were feisty and always getting into trouble.

Too much. Too little

The protagonist was too whiny. She followed police protocol too seldom. Although the author explains her behaviour away as caused by childhood trauma, by the middle of the tale I stopped caring. This is the first and last story I will read by this author.

Enjoyable!

Love love love your voice Sara!!!! You bring the story to life!! Always amazed at you're performance!

A great listen as usual, Mahalo!

Performance excellent and true to characters...so good it goes by too fast! Glad it's done by a local narrator!! Love her voice and style of storytelling. Looking forward to Dark Lava!

Story both interesting in regards to Hawaii's native birds and feels true to Hawaii's local culture. More relationship stuff in this one though so reading or listening to previous books is kinda necessary for more enjoyment. Keep them coming!!

A little slow for me

The book was good but story progression was to slow for my personal taste. I really enjoyed the characters of the book and plan to read more of the series.

Great use of the unique qualities of Hawaii

Bird poaching – I really liked this storyline, you certainly can’t accuse the author of a lack of variety. Again, using the elements that make Hawaii unique, including the challenges of local bird conservation, and crafting the story around it. This kind of immersive use of the exotic environment is what really makes this series stand out.

With Lei’s wedding approaching, the author has actually included something I did feel had gone missing, Lei’s childhood abuse… which is a fundamental part of her character. It’s not necessary to harp on about it, but it was at least briefly mentioned. Given it’s the source of her issues regarding the wedding, having children etc, it did feel a little glossed over but I suppose this is the middle ground between going on and on about it, and ignoring it completely.

I am glad the FBI storyline is over, it was a very bad fit (little fish in a way too big pond), and while the author is glossing over the new responsibilities as lieutenant, which I feel should be more than a brief mention of extra paperwork and some vague training, it is a welcome return to the more down-to-Earth elements that make the series interesting.

I was amused by Lei’s decision on her wedding day - if I was in law enforcement, I have to say I would have done exactly the same thing in her shoes. A wedding is frivolous and expensive, so I can 100% relate to her attitude towards it and her obsessive need to finish the case. You don’t get married for your sake, it’s for everyone except you and double that in this case, Lei doesn’t care about getting married, she’s doing it for Stevens’ sake to give him piece of mind about her running again. I was impressed that the author knew her character this well – it’s surprisingly astute. I was equally impressed that the author was able to successfully transition Lei into a much more positive mindset for the wedding, given how frazzled, exhausted and aggravated Lei was when she arrived. I can’t remember the last time I empathised this strongly with a character.

The reader does her usual excellent job of accents and the immersion is really critical to keeping you grounded in the Hawaii setting.

The unusual setting of Hawaii and it’s unique elements in terms of environment, combined with the wide variety of types of crime are really serving the series well, keeping it fresh, while still growing the characters.

Enough Already

Toby Neal has eight audiobooks available and I have all of them. For those of us who've never seen Hawaii the descriptions provided by the author paint a picture and it's obvious that the author loves the islands. So much for the positive.
First, Lei's ongoing commitment phobic angst is getting old. This is the third or forth book that has devoted a great deal of airtime to the same old female Hamlet s... enough already. I don't know if the author has become lazy or bereft of ideas or what but it's time for something new. Perhaps it realistically depicts the thought process of individuals about to get married but it ceased to be interesting two or three books ago. In fact the romance between Lei and Stevens has always come across as tepid to me. Given that the female characters are drawn much more fully in her books, I think that a romantic relationship with Sophie or Marcela would play far better and definitely be more interesting but maybe it's just me.
Second point: in all the books featuring Lei Texiera at various points in the narrative she goes charging into situations recklessly. Never mind procedure, never mind waiting for backup, never mind that she isn't even armed, she still charges ahead. The part of this that really peals my paint is her being depicted as the hero or the person responsible for solving the case. In the real world the Martin Riggs characters get themselves killed or someone else killed; or both. The people who get the job done by taking risks, take calculated risks. Getting away with risks like that may work once, but for Lei they work two or three times a book. Hopefully now that she is married to Stevens one of those lame... plot lines is history. There is too much that's good about the series to go bad over a couple lazy plot lines.

Shattered Palms

I did find this listen to be slow in getting into and had to go back and relisten a few times. Once I has gotten into the story, I did enjoy it and got to know and like the characters. The narration sometimes could have been clearer, but otherwise good.

Lei Crime #6 with amazing narration!

Toby Neal writes a terrific crime series with a great cast of characters and a beautiful depiction of the islands. Narrator Sara Malia Hatfield is amazingly talented with a variety of voices, perfect pidgin and Hawaiian pronunciation. The wedding scene was particularly touching. Highly recommend!!

Just so so

I have read all the ones preceding and this one was my least favorite. What should have been a great plot was weakened by the whole wedding/family sub plot. I am getting quite tired of Lei recklessness and often childless behavior.

The reading pace was uneven and I actually had to decrease the speed to .75 because it was just too fast then at other times was OK.