Turtle Bay by Helga Stipa Madland Book Review

Thank you for stopping at my spot on Turtle Bay. This Virtual Book Tour is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book. I will provide you with a synopsis of the book, review, and a small bio from Helga Stipa Madland. Visit the other blogs on this Book Tour to learn more about this book.

Synopsis:

A robbery and the disappearance of an English professor at the famous Turtle Bay resort in Oahu, Hawaii keep Detective James Kahamala of the Honolulu Police Department and his family, twin daughters Myra and Maya, Aunt Beatrice, and dachshund Questor on their toes. Follow their adventures into English Department politics and family complications. Ultimately, the dachshund saves the day. A “whimsical” mystery, not to be missed!

Bio:

HELGA STIPA MADLAND was born in Upper Silesia, now a part of southwest Poland, in 1939. In 1945, she was a refugee along with her Mother and Sister; Dad, a forester, had been drafted. They left their home village together with her aunt, Tante Hilde, whose husband, Onkel Joseph, was able to help because he was a police detective and had not been drafted, and their three children, Rita, Lothar and Sigrid. Lothar is two days younger than Helga, and the cousins regarded this to be a cause for constant conflict. Later, in West Germany, two more cousins were born, Guenther and Reinhart, a large group of cousins.
In 1954, by way of Canada, the author, her parents Hubert and Ann, sister Ingrid, and brother Michael (born much later in West Germany) moved to the United States. Helga graduated from Helias High School in Jefferson City, Missouri in 1957.
Hubert Stipa was able to obtain a position as a forester in Idaho and lived there, along with his wife Ann, until his death in 2004 at the age of ninety-three. Helga worked as a secretary, something she thought she would never do because she could not type; after a short while, she married Bill (Spike) Madland and they produced three amazing children, Kathryn, Michael and Patrick, who now live with their spouses, Bob, Lisa and Bobbie, in Boise, Seattle and Anchorage. Helga is fortunate to have six grand children, Bobby and Alex, Sydney and Colin, Atticus and Melozie, and two nephews, Christopher, her brother’s son, and Tom, her former sister-in-laws, Joanne’s, son.
Former sister-in-law suggests that the marriage to “Spike” did not last. After completing her B.A. by hook and by crook (night school, correspondence courses, one semester on campus), Helga earned a B.A. in German and English education and taught high school for three years in Twin Falls, Idaho. Eventually, she noticed that Ingrid, her sister, who by then had returned to graduate school in California, earned about the same as a teaching assistant as she earned as a high school teacher in Idaho. Helga applied for graduate study in German and was accepted at the University of Washington, from where she graduate in 1981 with a Ph.D. in German and a minor in Spanish. By then, daughter Kathy had graduated from high school and was about to attend college. Sons Mike and Pat accompanied her to Seattle, where they lived on campus, and undoubtedly received an effective out-of-classroom education.
In 1981, Ph.D. finally in hand, Helga asked her sons, who by then had graduated from high school, if she should accept the assistant professor of German position she had been offered at the University of Oklahoma; they told her: “Mom, if you don’t leave, we might.” Such maturity was difficult to resist. She took the job.
After “rising” to department chair of the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma, an institution she generally adores, she retired in 2005 and is now Professor Emeritus at OU.
Last but in no way least, she has been married for twenty years or so, to her second husband (and, believe me, last), Richard Beck, who teaches Ancient Greek at the University of Oklahoma. When he isn’t reading Greek grammar or literature, he is reading international recipes, or worrying about the two dogs, the long-haired dachshund Questor, Peter, a sort of schnauzer-terrier mixture, and four domestic house cats, Tassos, a languid, yellowish feline, Gretel, his tortoise shell sister, Percy, a calico cat, and Fritz, a very hairy cartoon cat. All these animals live with us. In addition, Richard like to garden and travel, in reversed order.
Visit Helga on the web at www.dachshundscanflyhelga.com.

My Review: 

I enjoyed Turtle Bay and I thought the characters were well described. I couldn't put it down once I started. 

James Kahamala was a detective on the Honolulu Police Department, he had two 12 year old twin daughters Myra and Maya.  His wife had passed away a few years back so he was raising them on his own with some help from Aunt Beatrice.  In the story James was investigating a robbery of some paintings taken from the lobby of a resort called Turtle Bay. While investigating this crime an English professor goes missing from a fall retreat. 

What I liked best about the story was when his daughters, Aunt Beatrice, and his dog Questor start helping him to solve both crimes.  You will need to read the story to find out what happens. I think you will find it as interesting as I did!

Stop by some of the other stops on the tour to read more about Turtle Bay a mystery.

Monday, October 15

Guest blogging at Tifferz Book Reviews

Wednesday, October 17

Guest blogging at Idea Marketers

Thursday, October 18

Interviewed at Blogcritics

Monday, October 22

Guest blogging at Allvoices

Tuesday, October 23

Interviewed at Examiner

Wednesday, October 24

Interviewed at Review From Here

Monday, November 5

Book reviewed at Colletta’s Kitchen Sink

Tuesday, November 6

Interviewed at American Chronicle

Wednesday, November 7

Guest blogging at Shine

Thursday, November 8

Interviewed at The Writer’s Life

Monday, November 12

Book reviewed at My Reading Table

Tuesday, November 13

Guest blogging at My Reading Table

Wednesday, November 14

Interviewed at Examiner

Thursday, November 15

Book reviewed at Book Angels

Friday, November 16

Interviewed at Literal Exposure

Monday, November 19

Interviewed at Book Angels

Tuesday, November 20

Interviewed at Newsvine

Wednesday, November 21

Guest blogging at Digital Journal

Monday, November 26

Book reviewed at Mason Canyon

Tuesday, November 27

Interviewed at Broowaha

Wednesday, November 28

Guest blogging at Open Salon

Thursday, November 29

Interviewed at Divine Caroline

Monday, December 3

Book reviewed at Books+Beach=Escape

Tuesday, December 4

Book reviewed at Books, Thoughts, and a Few Adventures

Thursday, December 6

Book reviewed at SOS Aloha

Friday, December 7

Book reviewed at Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, December 10

Book reviewed at Mary’s Cup of Tea

Tuesday, December 11

Book reviewed at My Devotional Thoughts

Wednesday, December 12

Book reviewed at Bookish

Guest blogging at My Devotional Thoughts

Thursday,December 13

Book reviewed at Bless Their Hearts Mom

I received a Copy of this book from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for the review, and the review is honest and my responsibility.