About The Author
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Samantha Lei Stevens was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii and spent much of her childhood living on the ranch and sugar plantation that are the backdrops of The Stone Lantern.  She graduated cum laude from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism and was a feature writer on several Bay Area newspapers.  Although Samantha lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of her adult life, she taught English to a wide variety of students while living in a jungle village in northern Argentina, a fishing hamlet in China and at the Chisan-Dong Elementary School in Song-tan, Korea.  She now resides in Northern California with her husband.  The Stone Lantern is her first novel.
 
PROLOGUE
 
It was still dark that early morning at South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii when two men carrying battery-operated lanterns started their descent down the cliff, careful not to slide on the loose rocks of the narrow, steep trail.  Half way down they found a slit in the rock wall and shined the lights into it.  Beyond was another bigger opening shielded by a large, free-standing boulder.  The men slipped through the narrow space and found a smooth, flat rock at the foot of the boulder and stood on it, lifting the lamps, trying to see what was on the other side.  As they had hoped, there was an entrance to a cave.  They stepped inside and gasped.  Ahead of them at the far end, sitting on four large lava rocks, was an outrigger canoe.  Surrounding the canoe were wooden bowls, tools, and stone lamps among other ancient implements.  Petroglyphs adorned the walls.  They moved closer to the ancient vessel and peered inside.  Lying on a cape made of faded crimson and yellow feathers was the head of a human skeleton.  Other bones were arranged as if to simulate a whole skeleton, but the long arm and leg bones were missing.
 
The men held their breaths, unable to speak.  Turning to look back at the cave’s entrance they saw two kahilis – long-handled wooden staffs topped with cylinders of crimson and yellow feathers – leaning against the wall like sentries guarding a tomb.  They lifted the lanterns to shine more light on the cave’s interior.  In the shadowy darkness to their left, near the entrance from which they had come, something caught their eyes.  Slowly inching over they found another astonishing sight.  Lying there wearing knee high leather riding boots and a leather belt with a tarnished silver buckle was another skeleton, this one not so ancient.  The skull was bashed in.
If you like what you've just read and are curious as to who murdered Jessie's father, The Stone Lantern can be purchased at Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com as an eBook for about $9  and about $13 for a printed, soft-covered, paperback.