About the author: Alan Amos is a pseudonym of Kathleen Moore Knight. Surprising little is known about Kathleen Moore Knight (1890-1984), at least online. She is not listed in Wikipedia nor the more popular mystery fiction directories; her booklist is on Fantastic Fiction. My count is 34 mystery novels, all published by the Crime Club; a few under the pseudonym of Alan Amos. See this 1946 interview.
Major characters:
- Julian and Serena Cornish
- Maura and Pam Cornish, their daughters
- Brian and Rita Avaraldo Cornish, their son and his wife
- Watson Gilday, newspaper reporter
- Barry Toland, Canal Zone public relations
- Oliver Bradley
- Lt. Pierce Harding
- Pvt. Lou Garrity, died in a fall
- Pvt. Alec McVey
- Pvt. Willie Trout, now in an insane asylum
Locale: Panama
Synopsis: This story is told in a series of written accounts by several characters in a diary format.
Julian Cornish, his wife Serena, daughters Pam and Maura, and son Brian live in Casa Paraiso on the edge of the Panamian jungle, near the canal. Newspaper reporter Watson Gilday inquires to Julian about doing an updated story on a search for a buried treasure, which occurred five years earlier, during World War II. Julian is reluctant, as that search ended with the death of soldier Lou Garrity, and he does not want to attract another series of treasure hunters to their paradise home.
The treasure, called the Treasure of San Juan de Salud, was buried by priests in a mule train en route across Panama. They had arranged some stones in the altar of a small chapel in the jungle to point to its location, but over the time the stones have fallen and can no longer be interpreted.
Five years have passed, the war has ended, and some of the former army soldiers gather at the Cornish home to once again search for the treasure. During excavation for a new house for Brian Cornish and his wife Sarita "Rita" Avaraldo, a wooden box is uncovered, containing belongings of one of the priests - including a sketch copy of the altar stone arrangement. Gilday travels to the historical museum to refer to the original drawing showing the arrangement, and while returning is found shot to death by Barry Toland, who becomes the obvious suspect. Toland returns to a cold reception at Casa Paraiso, which begins a night of terror as the house becomes isolated and a killer stalks.
Review: I enjoy Knight's Central American stories (both under her name and Alan Amos), partly due to the lush descriptions of the region, and this one is no exception. These stories always seem to revolve around a large family compound which gets isolated in some manner - and in this one, let's see ... the phone line gets cut, the power gets turned off, and the only bridge gets washed out (but we can't blame the killer for that one).
The diary format was interesting, and I had not run into that format before in which all the major characters take a turn writing their point-of-view experience; so you essentially have a series of first-person narrations. They all tied together nicely. It is explained that Serena keeps urging everyone to write their experiences and keep it up to date throughout the story.
This story had quite a few unnecessary side characters who only pop in briefly, I stopped making notes at 15. And there were quite a few romantic connections going on also which are beside the plot.
It was not clear to me why, when they had the priest's sketch copy of the altar stones, they still had to go find the original drawing in the museum. Or, if they already knew the original was in the museum, why all the excitement about the copy? This story line could have been thinned down to just one drawing.
This is the only Alan Amos in my collection. I will have to search out the other three: Fatal Harvest, Borderline Murder, Pray for a Miracle (apa Jungle Murder).
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