For more than 30 years, Orlando “Dan” Davidson was a familiar figure in Honolulu development and planning circles.

He started as a private attorney, served as general counsel and later executive director and lobbyist for the development-oriented Land Use Research Foundation, then was named executive director of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, and eventually took over the reins as executive director of the state Land Use Commission.

After he retired from that last post in 2012, he and his wife moved to the mainland. She passed away a couple of years ago, and he now live in Portland, Oregon.

Now Davidson has made a bit of a shift, resurfacing as a mystery writer with a pair of books.

His first book, Baseline Road, was published in January 2023 by Artemesia Publishing, LLC. A second volume, North of Foothill, is scheduled for release in March. You can find more information on Davidson’s website.

Here’s the publisher’s blurb for Baseline Road.

Southern California, May 1970.

In the turmoil following Nixon’ s Cambodia invasion and the Kent State killings, a young economics professor is killed in a campus bombing. Authorities conclude she was an unintended victim and arrest a known radical. Case closed.

Nearly two years have passed when an old hippie says, ” The Claremont bombings, the FBI pigs got it all wrong.” to Jimmy Sommes, a San Bernardino County homicide investigator, and country-rock fiddler, at one of Jimmy’ s gigs. Sommes and Claremont Detective Carol Loomis, look into the case and realize that things are not as they seem. Shadowy figures emerge, including Collins, a vicious but troubled hitman.

Was it a cleverly disguised murder? Jimmy and Carol, both enmeshed in improbable romantic relationships with characters who are possible suspects, believe the answer may be found on Baseline Road, a lonely stretch of highway that time has forgotten.

I recently reread Baseline Road. Davidson is a fine narrator whose main character, Jimmy Sommes, spins this yarn with snappy dialog, rich descriptions of places and people, and a complex plot grounded in actual events of the day.

It’s a good combo, and I’m looking forward to reading the upcoming release.

But neither book draws on Davidson’s years immersed in Hawaii’s inner politics close to the decision-making circles of power and influence. Lots of mysteries to be written grounded in this experience I’m sure. So I’m looking forward to another book set in the islands and drawing on this rich background in a similar fashion to the way Davidson painted a portrait of Claremont in an earlier day.