I hadn’t heard the term Fan Fiction yet when, based on my friend M. L. Doyle’s recommendation, Toby Neal approached me to write a book for her Lei Crime Kindle World series. Since I write cozy, culinary mysteries, Toby liked the idea of my using one of her foodie characters for a book with a culinary theme.

Of the possibilities, I chose for my main character Anna Scatalina, mother of FBI Agent Marcella Scott, the protagonist in Toby’s book Stolen in Paradise. In that book, we see Anna for the first time, a smothering Italian mother, who with her husband Egidio, moved to Honolulu to be near her daughter and took up cooking classes at the University of Hawaii.

In my book, Pineapples and Pearls, Anna has opened a café and hired a helper and protégé, Makoa, a Hawaiian surfer she discovered camping on her storefront’s doorstep. Anna enjoys being a business owner, cooking up breakfast and lunch fare for her customers.

A desperate call from her niece throws violent waves into Anna’s calm seas. Paolina has been badly beaten by her abusive boyfriend back in New Jersey and fears for her life. Her arrival in Honolulu becomes a blessing as she brings new life to the café, but Gino may be following.

Will Paolina’s new-found haven be enough to protect her?

Recipes included!