4 crampons out of 5

HCC 010

Al Colby is an unoriginally named treasure hunter huntin’ down some Incaic gold leftovers in Peru.  But you’d have no idea at the start of the book.  Writer David Dodge does something nifty with “Plunder of the Sun,” developing key characters as the text goes along to reveal them, slowly, as whole personalities, flaws where they weren’t evident before, and things to praise which chapter 1 wouldn’t have led you to believe.  It seems like an obvious thing to do in writing, but adventure tales and noir tales aren’t normally character driven.  “Plunder” gives us a best of both worlds scenario, mixing cool genre moves and concepts with a story that relies on not just character antics, but character emotions, to get by.

We start out in noir mode: Colby cooly judging his surroundings as he meets an elderly man in Chile who would like to hire him for a job: take this package on a boat and cross the border to Peru.  Colby wins points right away by demanding information – what is the package, and why can’t the old man take it himself.  This logical approach pervades most of the story, moments where a character’s enthusiasm would urge them to illogical connections are kept in check by Colby’s intelligent approach.  But unlike some noir, which perhaps doesn’t open us up to the main character’s overall plan, Dodge lets us be right on the same page as Colby.  The mystery comes from trying to understand other people’s motivations.  You see signs of betrayal in the water; you see a potential femme fatale.  The book spends almost its first half or third on this boat, letting the night-time scuffles and boarding and unboarding strangers make this fit at home with other HCC books, Colby hanging back and acting tough and offering the smart line when needed.

But once our lead realizes that the package he has might lead to buried treasure (not really a spoiler… this on the back of the book), the tone shifts.  He gets a degree of gold fever, which lifts the gloom in several ways – suddenly we’re in sunny Peru, hopping around town as Colby puts more pieces together and tries to avoid other treasure hunters.  He also, lo, becomes more likeable.  He’s not exactly unlikeable in the earlier portion of the book, he’s just a normal character.  Once his path is required to cross with a range of shady and broken characters, we start to get glimpses of a human being.  The same goes for some of our other leads – you think you have a bead on who they are, and then small elements slip in and surprise you.  It was quite rewarding, and one of the few HCC books thus far that didn’t play like a movie in my head… it was more rewarding to stay in the text and absorb the words (though interestingly there was a movie made in the 50s…).

That being said, the pacing of mystery to adventure excitement does peter out with about 40 pages to go.  The rush dissipates.  It’s still a compelling read, but it seems to want to build to a second climax that doesn’t exist.  It leads to a satisfying conclusion, almost poetic in its last sentences, though feels slightly family friendly for all the double crossing buildups from before.