Downing: The Case of the Unconquered Sisters

'Three skeletons are being shipped from Mexico to an American museum. A train wreck reveals that one of them is not a prehistoric Indian but a modern archaeologist. He shouldn’t have been a skeleton at all, and Hugh Rennert, the Customs man—this is his fourth case—sets to work to find out why he is. He does, and it makes an absorbing story, with as glamorous a background as any mystery lover could wish. Mexico, the three cacti in the middle of the lake of dead lava, the hooting tecolotes—foretelling death—the mysterious mansion of the unconquerable old ladies, descendants of a proud southerner who preferred exile in Mexico to joining the United States. This plus the search for a civilization buried under the lava, plus the hint of treasure plus threatening, sadistic letters, and fingers of suspicion pointing in all directions, plus dirty work and smart work and a spot of love, and you have a story to keep you awake.' (Montreal Gazette, 1936)

Additional

First published in 1936.

Series

A Hugh Rennert mystery.