ALAN AMOS – Panic in Paradise. Doubleday / Crime Club, hardcover, 1951. Detective Book Club 3-in-1 edition, hardcover reprint, no date stated. No paperback edition.

   Life in Panama was little different in 1950 than it is now, but somehow this story of a hunt for hidden Spanish treasure reads as though it could be happening today, perhaps because only such timeless matters as human frailties and relationships are involved.

   The framework, that of various characters putting down in diary form the story as it passes their way, starts out awkwardly, then becomes a fascinating chain of murders, kidnappings, escaped lunatics, downed bridges, and cut phone lines. Non-stop reading fare.

Footnote: Alan Amos was a pseudonym of Kathleen Moore Knight, a mainstay author for the long-running Crime Club line of books. As Amos she wrote a total of four mystery adventures such as ths one. Under her own name, she was most famous for her series of mysteries featuring Penberthy Island selectman Elisha Macomber, of which there were sixteen. It’s a long way from Cape Cod to Central America, but I don’t think the Panamanian jungle has ever been brought to life more vividly.