Fithian Press: The Teed-Off Ghost

In The Teed-Off Ghost, the new mystery novel by Lee Tyler, an ancient wall, known as a papohaku, runs across the fairway of the fourteenth hole at the Mauna Makai, a luxury golf resort on Hawaii’s Kohala Coast. The wall is on all the posters and brochures. It’s beautiful, it’s unique, and it’s...haunted? Or maybe the whole course is haunted. How else to explain sprinklers that start without being turned on, or the rough by the sixteenth hole catching fire when nobody’s nearby, or the skeleton in the cave that comes to life
occasionally for a round of golf, or the wall, which decides one night to disappear and then reappears before morning? Or the ghostly Night Marchers who prowl the King’s Trail in the midst of a howling wind?

It’s high jinx like these that call for the special talents of Harry “Win” Winslow and June Jacobs, the golfing sleuths of Tyler’s series of golf mysteries. But when Win and June, always ready for a romantic working vacation, especially one that involves golf, come to the Mauna Makai and start asking questions, they soon learn that nobody knows who or what is behind the spooky events plaguing the new golf course. Not Martha Masters, the resort manager, who needs the monkey business stopped before the grand opening; not Ted Tamura, the greenkeeper, who draws a salary from Mauna Makai but takes orders from the volcano goddess, Pele; not Keoki Kalama, who’s in charge of general maintenance but is more concerned about the fate of his lovely young daughter, Aiulani, a hula dancer who’s caught in a love triangle between two young hunks on the greenkeeper’s staff but is more concerned about the underground movement for Hawaiian independence; not Charlie Leong, the resort’s concierge, who considers it his duty to romance all the female guests, including June Jacobs.

Whether you’re hooked on golf, or love the beautiful scenery and noble history of Hawaii, or just crave a good romance, a spooky ghost story, a puzzling mystery, or a crackling comedy—for this book is all of the above—you’ll find ideal reading at home or on vacation.

Lee Tyler, also the author of The Case of the Missing Links, lives in Burlingame, California. A longtime travel writer, she has published some 80 articles about golf Hawaiian style. She is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America.