Chris McKinney (1)

McKinney, Chris. Midnight, Water City. Water City No. 1. Soho Crime, 2021.
Chris McKinney is not a writer known for near-future science fiction. Most of his novels have been character-driven stories about underclass life in Hawaii. In Midnight, Water City he has written a noir mystery set in a 22nd-century underwater city. The body of the world’s most famous scientist, revered for singlehandedly saving the world from a calamitous asteroid strike, has been discovered cut into small pieces. show more Her sometime bodyguard becomes a suspect, but he is also uniquely qualified to investigate. He is an unhappy man with a troubled marriage, traumatic memories of his violent military career, and guilt about the ruthless methods he employed protecting his client and his failure to protect her in the end. In other ways, he is not a standard noir detective. He is eighty years old, color blind, with synesthesia that lets him perceive musical sounds as colors. The synesthesia also gives him an uncanny ability to perceive a green aura around potential murder victims and murderers. This psychic ability should remind science fiction readers of Larry Niven’s Gil the Arm. The novel’s world-building is a bit sketchy but intriguing. Much of the population has moved underwater to shield itself from deadly solar flares. Society is just recovering from the panic caused by the impending asteroid strike. One detail I like is an apartment full of objects made from plastics reclaimed from the ocean. The plot is messy, but I am reminded that noir writers from Raymond Chandler to David Lynch have created successful stories whose plots made little rational sense. In the end, Midnight, Water City achieves an uneasy balance between the rational demands of near-future science fiction and the more surreal elements of its noir mystery. Four stars. show less

pretty fantastic story. I loved doing a futuristic story with a 1940's hollywood gumshoe feel. You never find out what the main character's name is through the whole book. Everyone else arround him, sure. But never his name. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the other two books coming out later this year (2nd in the trilogy in July, 3rd in the trilogy in December). I recommend it.

After the death of her second husband in Long Island, A famous Korean actress, Soong, travels to Hawaii for her son’s wedding. She moves to the big island and becomes embroiled in her children’s lives. Eldest daughter, Won Ju, the survivor of a traumatic attack in her youth, is in a loveless marriage to the ambitious and macho Kenny, and they have a 15-year-old son, Brandon. Second in the lineup is Donny, who is marrying Crystal, a native Hawaiian stripper. The last of the three children show more is Darian, a Berkeley dropout who becomes attached to Crystal’s ex-con brother Kaipo. Interspersed with the contemporary story of psychodrama stemming from cultural alienation and familial estrangement is Soong’s own story of her youth and rise to stardom in 1960s Seoul, a time of massive upheaval and reconstruction and change in Korean national identity. The struggles in this story are about identity and the integrity of culture in a fluid world where change is ever stirring and making the lines of distinction blur, culminating in losses that are impossible to express, as exemplified by Brandon’s actions and ultimate tragedy. McKinney’s writing is strong and quick, the characters interesting and whole. The themes of racial and cultural identity and the integrity of native Hawaiians is stressed, but any glory or redemption for this is lost once the quasi-hero of them all is returned to jail at the end. show less

A little different than his earlier books but still good. The author does an excellent of revealing a side of Hawaii few visitors ever are exposed to. It is so easy to forget that Hawaii is like any big city and yet because of who lives there and the fact it’s an island the problems Hawaii has are in some ways unique, and this author does an excellent job exposing this to the reader.