Māhū Surfer reviews:
Reviewing the Evidence is a wonderful review site-- and I'm not just saying that because they've had nice things to say about MAHU SURFER. There are tons of great reviews there, and they're always well-written and insightful.
There's a nice review at Armchair Interviews, by Patricia Reid, whose knowledgeable comments also appear in the Mystery Reader Cafe newsgroup. Her review is also posted at Amazon, where a number of other readers (not my personal friends!) have weighed in with their comments.
The Queer Bibliophile has this to say, among other things: "From the very beginning, I found Kimo a fascinating and sympathetic character, especially because of the internal struggle that he faces while deciding if the price he has to pay in order to get back into the police force is worth the hurt it will cause his parents and family." I love it when a reviewer really seems to understand what I'm writing about!
Although reviewer Betty Shimabukuro of the Honolulu Star Bulletin didn't like the sex in MAHU SURFER (the headline of the review is "Steamy passages distract from mystery,") I was delighted to get a review in an island paper. And who knows, maybe that "steamy" headline will draw some readers to my books!
The Edge, a gay newspaper with online presence in many cities, including New York, Boston and Ft. Lauderdale
I was so honored that Victor Banis, one of the pioneers of gay fiction, gave me a nice review at Mysterical-e magazine online. There's also a nice interview at the magazine, which I highly recommend for great articles and fiction.
Connie Ogle, the book editor for the Miami Herald, wrote a nice article on me. And on my birthday! What a great present.
Becky Swets, a fellow member of the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, gave me a nice review in Futures, a mystery anthology magazine online.
This review at Gaydar Nation wants to be about Mahu Surfer, but it's mostly about Mahu.
This is ostensibly a review of Mahu Surfer from the website GaydarNation, but it really sounds like Mahu to me. Make your own decision:

Post-Stonewall, gay mystery fiction has mushroomed with a welter of crime novels flooding an already cluttered and competitive market. Consequently, it’s no longer good enough simply to have a gay protagonist or queer background characters as your USP, you need other hooks to pull the punters in. Enter the latest detective novel to throw its hat into the ring where a picturesque and exotic setting, namely Hawaii, gives the novel its different angle as well as its title.

‘Mahu’ is Hawaiian for gay man and is widely regarded as a derogatory bitch-slap of an insult. In traditional Hawaiian culture, gay men lived with the women, also treated as second-class citizens, and did ‘women’s work’ - whatever that is; presumably all the hard stuff the ‘real’ don’t fancy - but as with most machismoed schlong-swinging societies ‘special’ - i.e. some light up-the-bum action - friendships between men are tolerated as long as you’re a top and straight-acting.

Hence the tortured tension turmoiling in the mind of the book’s protagonist. For Detective Kimo Kanapa’aka of the Honolulu police force, the idea of being known as a mahu is terrifying, so much so he suppresses his real sexuality with a load of going-nowhere one-nighters with ‘wahine’ (women), often tourists he’s in no danger of seeing again and having to string along with lies. But finally, after a hard day’s street-pounding followed by some late-night drink destressing, Kimo decides to check out a local gay bar. Unfortunately, he inadvertently witnesses a dead body being dumped in an alley behind the bar and in the fallout is forced to out himself, throwing his life, both personally and professionally, into chaos.

And this is where the book’s strength lies, in its dual narrative that follows a murder case and Kimo’s coming out journey as well as what it means to be gay in a homo-unfriendly island culture. This could quite easily have descended in a sledgehammer-subtle polemic railing against homophobia and relaying a hackneyed age old story of a gay man opening the closet door and learning to accept his sexuality, but Plakcy avoids the cliché trap by giving both his plot and his characters nuance and depth. Kimo is tortured, yes, but he never comes across as a cookie-cutter self-hater you can get in some sections of gay fiction.

As for the murder mystery, all the expected labyrinthine plot clues and false cul-de-sacs are present and correct, but there’s more flesh for the reader to sink their teeth into. OK, some of the evidence trail is telegraphed, but by and large you don’t foresee everything that’s coming and there’s enough originality to keep the interest buoyant. Speaking of buoyant, the novel is also pretty sexy as we follow Kimo’s bedroom reawakening. Sex scenes in novels are notoriously difficult to get right, but Plakcy manages to strike the right balance of sauce and realism without the cringe factor creeping in.

Pacey, well-plotted and surprisingly moving, Mahu Surfer is as much about self-discovery as it about solving a crime.
From In LA magazine:

THEY SHOOT SURFERS, DON’T THEY?

By Christopher Cappiello

With the growing number of gay mystery series, an author has to carve out a specialized niche to make a splash. Neil S. Plakcy did that with his 2005 debut, Mahu, introducing the handsome Honolulu homicide detective, Kimo Kanapa’aka. Plakcy follows up with Mahu Surfer, which finds Kanapa’aka going undercover in the beach bum world of Oahu’s North Shore when three surfers catch their last waves with bullets in their heads. After being outed in the first novel, the gay gumshoe lives more openly in the new book, even as he has to be closeted as a lawman among the surfers. Plakcy, an English professor who teaches mystery writing, keep the waves of suspense crashing.

E.B. Boatner had this to say about Mahu Surfer in Lavender magazine:

We first met Hawaiian cop Kimo Kanapa’aka in Mahu (Lavender 271) when he was forced to confront his gayness, and who, at the end of the novel, was suspended from the force.

In this go-round, Kimo is back on the force—but only with the knowledge of his superior, Lieutenant Sampson. Three surfers have been murdered by a sniper, and Kimo, reinstated sub rosa by Sampson, is to go underground, posing as a feckless, layabout surfer.

Surfing comes easy to Kimo, but his fellow officers continue to avoid him, his parents are upset that Kimo appears to be slacking off instead of finding a job, and his brothers pester him, offering work, even a position at TV station KVOL—from the very brother and station that outed him in Plakcy’s first novel.

Kimo, torn between duty and the aversion he has to lying to his family members, determines nevertheless to tackle the murders, and then…but read.
Catherine Maiorisi had this to say on DorothyL, the mystery list serve: "My bookmark just left Mahu Surfer, the second book in Neil Plakcy's Hawaiian Mystery series.

"In Mahu, the first in the series, Detective Kimo Kanapa'aka comes out as a gay man after years of denying and hiding his feelings, but before he has time to absorb the change his sexuality becomes an issue in a case and the media drags him of the closet. He is suspended from the police force.

"In the second book, Mahu Surfer, Kimo is still trying to deal with his sexuality when he is reinstated and asked to go undercover to investigate the seemingly unrelated murders of three surfers on the North Shore of Oahu. The police in that area had no luck in getting information. Kimo is a surfer and had lived in the area before joining the police force so it seems like a good fit. However, in order to get people to talk to him, he has to lie to everyone including his parents and friends and say that he was taking time off from the police to figure out what he wants to do with his life. So he's right back to living a lie.

"The investigation seems to be going no where until he meets another gay guy who knew one of the victims and gets introduced to his friends who also knew her. Kimo is still struggling with being gay but for a change his sexuality is helping him with a case.

"Kimo is an interesting character, learning about Hawaii, Hawaiians, and surfing is fun, there's lots of action, and a great cast of characters. Those who don't like sex in their mysteries can skip those few scenes and enjoy a good read. Recommended."
Also in DorothyL, Dave Bennett, another reader, wrote: "In Mahu Surfer, Kimo Kanapa'aka is offered the chance to redeem himself by going undercover to investigate a trio of murders on Oahy's North Shore. The descriptions of life in Hawai'i are enjoyable, the life of a surfer interesting, and the mystery is certainly mysterious. (That said, the story could have stood on its own without gong into graphic detail about Kimo's private life.)

"As noted elsewhere, Kimo has just come out of the closet and still dealing with his new-found sexuality, and the way other people react to him. That part of the book is the most interesting, and what makes a good book is the relationships between the characters. Plakcy handles that angle very well indeed. In fact, I think his story approaches the standard set by Laurie King with her Kate Martinelli books; a sensitive portrayal of a troubled man. I enjoyed this one a lot."