Waifs of War is the second book written by Chris Mc Kinney, and is a follow on to her very successful, 'Sweet Violets, 'describing the events and happenings on the children's arrival home from Gainsborough, after living two years of torture and horrendous beatings at the hands of their billeter. Once again Chrissie and her brother find they are not welcome even in their own home by their mother this time, who after having another child, said she could not cope with three children and a war, and suggested after a short break at home they must return to their billet, choosing to dismiss the children's pleas.Their father, who is in the army then steps in and demands that his children stay at home where they belong, and when he goes back off leave, the true picture and reasons for their mother not wanting them at home emerges, and involves her times spent with American servicemen and British forces as everyone was hell bent on having a good time because of the war.The children were left to their own devices once more, living through bombings and raids, seeing their friends killed and injured while their parents were 'otherwise engaged.' Their is laughter in abundance as well as sadness in this story, and Chris McKinney tells it well, providing us with a great reminder of music and songs relevant to the era of the last war.Another compelling true tale from this excellent a

When Chrissie Bradshaw and her brother Davy discovered what they were up against with their billeter, Davy attacks her with a knife, with horrific consequences.They try to run home along the railway lines, and are brought back by a friendly policeman.Schooldays are mainly hilarious, thanks to the Phillips Brothers....athe Riley family, and Simple Dick who kidnaps one of the girls..Chrissie is Mortified when sent to school wearing a baby's nappy which she has to explain to the Leacherous music teacher..Mr Greenfield.

"A book about the sins of the fathers.' . . . A gritty, troubling book."-The Honolulu Advertiser

"The other Hawai'i, the one tourists never get to see."-Ian MacMillan

Ken Hideyoshi is the new guy in Halawa Correctional Institute. He's tough looking, a hard case, observes his cellmate Cal-the mute tattoo artist of the prison, a wife murderer. SYN, a gang symbol, is tattooed on his hand, and he has a Japanese emblem inscribed on his left shoulder. He asks Cal for a tattoo on his back, in kanji script, of Musashi's Book of the Void.

While he is being worked on, he tells Cal his life story, a tale of hardship and abuse. Motherless, he was raised by a distant father, a Vietnam War veteran, in the impoverished hinterlands. In his teen years he hung out with the native Hawaiian gangs and was drawn into the Hawaiian-Korean underworld of strip bars and massage parlors. His ambition and proud samurai spirit seem, inevitably, to lead to his downfall.

Chris McKinney is of Korean, Japanese, and Scottish descent. He was born in Honolulu and grew up in Kahaluu. He portrays the native Hawaiian experience from the inside, where children of mixed ethnicity grow up far from the clear water and pristine beaches of the rich visitors' resorts.