Scott Kikkawa was born in Los Angeles, but his parents, who were originally from Hawaii, returned home before he was 2.

After growing up in Hawaii Kai and graduating from Kaiser High School, Kikkawa went on to earn a degree in Islamic studies at New York University.

His first job when he returned to the Aloha State was working for a private detective. The job was his entry to a career that has included working as an insurance adjuster, which requires investigative work, and as an investigator for the state and federal governments. He is currently an agent for the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Kikkawa discovered detective fiction in his teens, but through the years he found few mysteries in which Hawaii and its people were more than scenery for cookie-cutter plots that could be set anywhere. A friend challenged him to do better. Kikkawa took him up on it.

Kikkawa’s first novel, “Kona Winds,” introducing hard-drinking HPD detective Sgt. Francis “Sheik” Yoshikawa and a dark noir environment of Hawaii in the early 1950s, was published in December 2020. His second book, the sequel “Red Dirt,” comes out Friday.

Kikkawa, 55, will be signing books Nov. 27 at da Shop: books + curiosities in Kaimuki (808-421-9460; dashophnl.com). The signing starts at 10:30 a.m. and will continue as long as there are people in line.

For more information on Kikkawa’s books, visit bambooridge.org.

Congratulations on both books. Was writing a sequel easier or harder than writing your first full-length novel?

I think it was easier for me. I know there’s a lot of talk about the “sophomore slump,” and how the second book is harder than the first, but I found it to be a lot easier because I didn’t know what I was doing on my first book. I’d never written a book before so a lot of writing the first book was figuring out how to do it. By the time the second one rolled around, it was really much easier.

Where does the character of Frankie “Sheik” Yoshikawa come from? Is he an alter ego for you, or is he based on people you know or people you’ve heard about?

He’s kind of an amalgamation of maybe all those things. I’ve long loved the detective fiction of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, but I didn’t want to make him just a Japanese Philip Marlowe. What I wanted was a character that people from here could identify with, and I wanted to write something that could only be uniquely set here. The character came out of this.

Last year, while reading “Kona Winds,” I noticed a lot of the scenes were set in Kakaako. It made me wonder how many buildings in Kakaako today were there in the 1950s — like that pink-and-green store on the corner of Queen and Kamani streets. Any ideas?

That pink-and-green store may be one of the few. … Kakaako is one of those places where you’re not going to see many old structures standing. Kakaako seems to be the stepchild of preservation.

What got you interested in crime in the 1950s?

There was a real sea change in terms of the Asian American population after the Immigration (and Nationality) Act of 1952, which effectively reversed all the exclusion acts. You saw a very different type of Asian immigrant coming in. They were a lot more sophisticated, there were a lot more white-collar people — that includes criminals too.

It’s been announced that you have a third novel coming. What can you tell us about it?

The title is “Char Siu.” Same protagonist. This one is set mostly in Chinatown and is inspired by the real-life HPD kickback scandals of the late 1940s. I think it’s slated to come out in 2023.

Any plans after that?

I’ve finished the fourth manuscript, and I’m working on the fifth. I don’t know what the future of those books will be, but I have my fingers crossed.

What advice do you have for people who want to be novelists?

Write what you know and write what you love. I was shocked when I started working on “Kona Winds” that there was nothing out there that was like it, so if any new writer wants to explore something that they’re intimately connected with, this is a great time to do it.

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Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.