Pipe Dreams

The Untold Story of the Massie Case

It was the case that had it all—murder and intrigue, white supremacy in an island paradise, and a courtroom drama featuring the great Clarence Darrow himself. Set in Prohibition-era Hawaii, the Massie Affair captivated the entire country, as it laid bare the deep social ills behind the Territory’s idyllic facade.

But was there more to the story? A half-century after the case closed, a federal agent with first-hand knowledge of the crime shared his own tale with author JOHN MADINGER, providing the inspiration for Pipe Dreams—an intriguing new twist on the case that changed Hawaii forever.

“The lurid events involving a US Navy officer and his wife that triggered a 1931 murder were just as charged with racial dynamics and political intrigue as anything occurring in mainland America today.”
—Joseph Wambaugh, The Blue Knight, The Onion Field

“Ninety years later, the Massie case still fascinates. John Madinger brings the story to a brand new audience, and his storytelling could not be better.”
—Jeffrey Robinson, The Laundrymen

"Madinger effectively draws on his expertise from his own law enforcement past, and he writes with the same vigor that he brought to his previous detective fiction, including the novel Death on Diamond Head (2008). As Jack’s and Thalia’s storylines dovetail, it only intensifies this suspenseful, impressive work, which successfully and cinematically reinvents a notorious criminal case. A vibrant and riveting fictionalization of real-life crimes and trials in 1930s Hawaii."
— Kirkus Reviews

Author: John Madinger
Softcover, 304pp
Release Date: October 2020

Click here for a one-sheet PDF primer on the Massie Case

Available in e-book format!