Plunder of the Sun (Hard Case Crime) (Hard Case Crime (Mass Market Paperback)) [Unabridged] [Mass Market Paperback]

I am not sure how one goes about the process of having a particular institution declared a national treasure, but I would love to get the ball rolling today for the Hard Case Crime imprint. Over the past several months Hard Case has published a riveting mix of reprinted and original hard-boiled, noir crime fiction in mass market paperback form, drawing readers in with out-of-print titles by familiar names such as Lawrence Block and Erle Stanley Gardner while encouraging others to take a chance on both new and under-appreciated authors and works.

PLUNDER OF THE SUN is one of those works that has fallen into undeserved obscurity, a state that will hopefully be remedied by its new incarnation in the Hard Case Crime catalog. David Dodge was a frequent and fairly prolific writer of hard-boiled fiction from 1940 through 1972. His best-known work, TO CATCH A THIEF, was adapted for film by Alfred Hitchcock. But he was also famous for a series of novels featuring detective and tax expert James "Whit" Whitney. Dodge was also a popular travel writer, and his mystery novels soon became recognized for their exotic backgrounds. Dodge created a second series of mystery novels featuring Al Colby, an American detective and fixer based in South America in general and Chile in particular. PLUNDER IN THE SUN is a Colby novel, and is a stellar example of Dodge's talents as a travel reporter and mystery writer.

At first blush PLUNDER OF THE SUN appears to be a bit of a departure from most of the fare of Hard Case Crime to date. It is more global in scope, taking place in Chile and Peru as opposed to the usual hard-boiled environs of New York or Los Angeles. There is also a bit more at stake here; instead of drugs or a bank heist, it is concerned with smuggling and buried treasure. But all of the other elements that make noir what it is --- deadly situations, treacherous men, beautiful but deadly women --- are here. Dodge transforms Colby, his itinerant soldier of fortune, into a competent stranger in a paradise where the act of turning over a rock can bring either wealth or a sudden and painful death.

PLUNDER OF THE SUN begins with Colby being retained to smuggle a mysterious package from Chile into Peru. It doesn't sound like much of a job; all that Colby has to do is take the package from his erstwhile employer, sail on a ten-day cruise to Peru, and give the package back when they land. By the time the cruise is over, however, Colby's enigmatic employer is dead and he is on the run from at least two gunmen. Even worse, he has been betrayed by two beautiful women. The package that Colby is carrying is worth more money than he can imagine, and incidentally contains the answer to one of history's greatest mysteries.

Colby can trust no one, but he doesn't know this, an element that gives the novel some added twists and turns. Additionally, the people who are trying to separate Colby from his package cannot trust one another; alliances shift and turn, with the only constant being Colby's rough sense of honor and decency. Dodge navigates his reader through a complex plot, keeping a sense of wonder present throughout the proceedings. One cannot read the book without spending at least a few moments wondering how such a work could have gone out of print for so long.

Hopefully the response to PLUNDER OF THE SUN will be such that Hard Case Crime will see fit to reprint in its distinctive format more of Dodge's works. This is a great story, by an under-acknowledged master. Highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Having never read any of David Dodge's work, I didn't know what to expect from this novel. Of course, I'd seen "To Catch a Thief" and enjoyed it, but one never knows if that is a result of good writing or merely an offshoot of Cary Grant's charisma or Hitchcock's undeniable skills in film direction. (Incidentally, the truly great movies put out over the last ten years have almost always been a result of Hollywood buying a good book and putting it on film, in my opinion, not the rehashing of world-weary story lines accompanied by the latest pyrotechnics and computer effects.) Needless to say, "Plunder of the Sun" did not disappoint!

Expecting a noir type thriller from Hard Case Crime, I was happy to find exactly that. I found many similarities to two of my favorites, Hammett and Chandler, but in the exotic locales another even older friend was brought to mind, E. R. Burroughs, in short little-known novels like "The Oakdale Affair" and "The Mucker." While Burroughs drew his settings and peoples almost purely from imagination, Dodge had either done a great deal of research about South America or relied upon personal experience. His depictions of Peru and Chile smack of a certain authenticity, even to my Norte Americano mind.

The tale is good, entertaining; the plot tight and quick-paced. What I appreciate most, however, is the hero of the story. Al Colby is the sort of protagonist one rarely finds in these days of nihilism and anti-heroes. A tough man, of course, as to be expected. In those days shortly after WWII, it seems to me there might have been any number of scarily tough guys wandering the far places of the earth, searching for something stolen from them by that horrible war that molded them, as well. That strength and fortitude come in very handily where Al Colby treads. He's intelligent, too, well versed in reading his fellow men and women as well as unafraid to pick up a book to learn something he didn't know. And in the first person, he tells a good story, with clever dialogue to rival Spade or Marlowe.

And, like those two stalwarts, Al Colby has morals and a conscience. It's a rough morality and he is still out to make a buck, but he won't sell out a woman or even a nation's heritage to do it. Human life isn't meaningless to him, and that's what I like about Al Colby the most.

"Plunder of the Sun" took me back to a time we have lost forever, and it's a trip I hope to take again soon. I have a feeling Hard Case Crime will make the travel arrangements for me again and again.

"When the nocturno pulled out for Cuzco, we slept in separate compartments .... I suppose I was getting old, but it was a dirty racket and the arithmetic was simple: eighty-four divided by two is forty-two, eighty-four divided by one is eighty-four.... I didn't want to shoot Jeff if a locked door between us made it unnecessary." -- Plunder of the Sun

It's a first: a novel from Hard Case Crime that I didn't particularly like. Not that there's anything especially wrong with David Dodge's Plunder of the Sun; I'm just not a big fan of the international-treasure-hunt genre, which actually made it a struggle to get through the book. So much so that I would finish other books in the time between I put this one down and picked it up again. Purely a matter of personal taste, but it does make a difference.

Plunder of the Sun is the second of three novels by Dodge starring Mexican-born private detective Al Colby. It was made into a 1953 movie, produced by John Wayne(!) and starring Glenn Ford, with only minor plot changes. The plot, in essence, is fairly simple: Colby, vacationing in Chile (he is fluent in Spanish) is paid a too large a sum of money to ignore, in order to smuggle an unknown package to Peru. (He should have known better, but a thousand dollars is a thousand dollars.)

Before long, his client is dead and a cadre of people are trying to get their hands on the mysterious package, which is alleged to contain information leading to an ancient Incan treasure. Can Colby decipher the message and get there first, or will he survive to get there at all?

As implied earlier, I didn't give two bits about Colby, his priceless Quechua pergaminos, or any of the losers tripping over themselves to get their hands on whatever lay at the proverbial spot marked X. But I wouldn't say it was Dodge's fault. In fact, it was his way with words, plotting skill, adept characterization (surprisingly enough, the females were especially well-drawn), and detailed setting (the author also wrote travelogues) that actually helped me make it to the end.

I liked Dodge's style enough that I would likely try another of his books, as long as it contained a significantly different setup. Apparently, the three Colby books are all similar, so maybe his other series character, accountant James "Whit" Whitney (who has been compared to Nick Charles of The Thin Man), would be more my style. However, given that Plunder of the Sun marks the return in print of any of his books (which is really hard to imagine, given that he also wrote the novel that the Alfred Hitchcock / Cary Grant / Grace Kelly romantic caper To Catch a Thief was based on), that may prove difficult.