Pago Pago Tango is set in American Samoa and introduces the reader to Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua. The island is small, where every one knows everyone else. Samoan culture and values struggle to survive in the face of onslaughts by palangi (North American culture). Many of the traditional ways have already died, although Apelu can remember them being active when he was a boy, before his father took the family to San Francisco. Soifua is uneasy when he's called to the home of Gordon Trurich, an executive with the Sea King Tuna Company, the second largest employer on the island of American Samoa. Trurich lived in Tafuna Plain, the area preferred by the majority of the Americans who lived there. Stolen from the Trurich home were a videotape recorder, a collection of videotapes, a small amount of cash, everything from a single cabinet to a handgun that was used in a gangland killing. Of course, Trurich neglected to mention the latter item on Soifua's visit, but this odd assortment of stolen items leads him into the dark depths of lies, drugs, secret codes, and murder.

Although the mystery itself isn't terribly demanding or particularly exciting, this debut shows some promise with a good balance between plot and character introduction. What is interesting about this novel is the way the author describes Samoan culture and the reader gets a look at Samoan traditions and past, contrasted with what it has become. ( )

Pago Pago Tango is set in American Samoa and introduces the reader to Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua. The island is small, where every one knows everyone else. Samoan culture and values struggle to survive in the face of onslaughts by palangi (North American culture). Many of the traditional ways have already died, although Apelu can remember them being active when he was a boy, before his father took the family to San Francisco. Soifua is uneasy when he's called to the home of Gordon Trurich, an executive with the Sea King Tuna Company, the second largest employer on the island of American Samoa. Trurich lived in Tafuna Plain, the area preferred by the majority of the Americans who lived there. Stolen from the Trurich home were a videotape recorder, a collection of videotapes, a small amount of cash, everything from a single cabinet to a handgun that was used in a gangland killing. Of course, Trurich neglected to mention the latter item on Soifua's visit, but this odd assortment of stolen items leads him into the dark depths of lies, drugs, secret codes, and murder.

Although the mystery itself isn't terribly demanding or particularly exciting, this debut shows some promise with a good balance between plot and character introduction. What is interesting about this novel is the way the author describes Samoan culture and the reader gets a look at Samoan traditions and past, contrasted with what it has become. ( )

A cozy mystery set on one of the islands in American Samoa. Apule is a Samoan detective. He lived for a while in California, but has returned with his family, to become a low class case detective on the local police force. He stumbles along, ala Columbo style, although you know that's really just an act and he really is pulling the disparate pieces of a drug smuggling crime together. But there a dirty cop involved, a burglary that isn't quite right, and now whites and Samoans are being murdered, in what looks like disparate crimes, but really are related. Will he crack the case before he gets murdered too? ( )

This book is set in American Samoa, on the island of Tutuila, at Pago Pago. PAGO PAGO TANGO is a police procedural, the first of a series centred on Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua. The island is small, where every one knows everyone else. Samoan culture and values struggle to survive in the face of onslaughts by palangi (North American culture). Many of the traditional ways have already died, although Apelu can remember them being active when he was a boy, before his father took the family to San Francisco.

Now the Samoan economy is also struggling to survive and traditional goods have been replaced by a thriving drug trade. In reality the palangi are the controllers of the trade and the profits. Natural resources have been plundered and the fishing is almost gone. Serious crime like homicides are rare, but in PAGO PAGO TANGO a relatively unimportant burglary has connections with much more serious money making.

What is interesting about this novel is the way the author describes Samoan culture at every opportunity. The reader gets a look at Samoan traditions and past, contrasted with what it has become.

An interesting and instructive read, as well as being a tightly plotted novel. ( )

A police procedural in Samoa! The island atmosphere, the racial and tribal distinctions, the modern troubles and old customs are interwoven to form a vivid picture of Samoa through the eyes of Apulo, a seargeant in the local police. First of what I hope will become a series. ( )