The Secret of Easter Island - Wolfgang Hohlbein (1992)
Originally posted 30 August 2020 on the Indiana Jones Facebook Group
Junior Jones' Indymag - The Magazine for Indiana Jones Fans issue 15 was released along with an English translation of this German book.
Of course I read my Dutch hardcopy instead, but that shouldn't matter much.
Either way, it's a good book; and well worth a read!
Forget the white sandy beaches and calm waving palm trees of your stereotypical tropical islands. An ancient people on an uncharted island hide a dark, dark secret.
The Americans are after it.
But so are the Nazi's.
Who is on whose tail?
And who can even be trusted?
With one secret service man named Franklin and the other Delano, it's clear that not all is as it appears.
Especially with a rag-tag bunch of air crash victims also gone missing.
Indiana's wit is as sharp as ever; especially when facing off against the SS and a German U-boat captain.
And that same goes for the author himself too.
The book starts with a bang; describing a plane going down in most entertaining detail.
I especially like the flying debris, "of which one of the pieces looked suspiciously like the right half of the altitude rudder, which should really be along with the left at the rear of the craft".
This might also mark the introduction of the recurring character of Grisswald.
You can imagine him as the anti-Brody.
Instead of calm, wise and supportive; he is frustrated beyond belief at Indy's disappearance on "nonsensical adventures" time and again, leaving the university perpetually understaffed.
To say these two do not see eye to eye would be the understatement of the previous century.
And it works wonders!
Great character dynamic; and certainly one I could see fitting in a future film too.
So what are you waiting for?
Get out your fedora and start digging!