Todd Downing

Murder on the Tropic (A Hugh Rennert Mystery) Todd Downing

In Mexico yellow marigolds represent Death. At Hacienda Flores, a relic of pre-revolutionary days splendidly isolated near the Tropic of Cancer in the mountains of Nuevo Leon, the "yellow death" of which they whisper is not something that is merely figurative, however-no, it is all too real! On hand at the request of one of the members of a Texas business consortium that has invested in Hacienda Flores (it was said, erroneously, that the Pan-American highway would be constructed nearby) is U. S. Customs Service agent (and amateur detective) Hugh Rennert. Once again Rennert becomes tasked in Mexico with foiling a multiple murderer's malign machinations. Rennert's task is considerably complicated by the hurricane that is moving relentlessly toward Hacienda Flores. You won't soon forget the dramatic final duel between Rennert and his death-dealing quarry. "[There are] horrors too numerous to mention," one delighted Midwestern reviewer gushed of Murder on the Tropic in the year it was originally published, 1935. The "complications are guaranteed to keep the reader interested and greatly puzzled," more austerely avowed the New York Times Book Review. Whether one is looking for thrills or for clues (or even a bit of both), Murder on the Tropic is a true winner from the Golden Age of detective fiction.