When the Kingdom of Hawaii selected a remote 4-acre patch of dirt and rock at Kalawao on the north coast of the island of Molokai in 1866 as the location for a leper colony, they knew they would not need guards to keep sufferers from escaping. Approach from the sea was almost impossible, and the only way in by land meant a dangerous trek down a narrow switchback trail that dropped almost 1,500 feet from the plateau to the beach. Each of the 8,000 afflicted victims of what is now called Hansen’s disease were legally certified as dead by the Hawaiian government before they were shipped to the colony. Even so, many lived for years, farming, fishing and maintaining the structures in the tiny settlement.

In Thomas Scoundrel’s new adventure, Scoundrel in Paradise, the people of Kalawao and their remarkable priest, Father Damien, play an important role when Thomas and a friend are shipwrecked on the beach of the forbidden colony. The real-life Damien was 32 when he came to minister to the lepers, and he died at 49 after contracting the disease himself. In Paradise we are introduced to the Catholic saint as a real man, with a joy for life and spirit that make it easy to understand why he is universally revered.