Location Location: a mystery set in Panama

Whodunnit in Panama?
a book review by Eric Jackson

Location Location
by Kit Sloane
Durban House Press, Dallas (2008)
235 pages, $15.95 in paperback
ISBN 978-1-930754-99-7

This sixth in a series of mysteries revolving around film editor Margot O'Banion and her lover, director Max Skull, probably won't star Tom Cruise when they make a movie about it.

Here we have an unusual cult that does not particularly, like the followers of the legendary carpenter from Galilee, go looking for converts among the poor. No, the Fateologists seek to save the souls --- or shall we say promote the success and share in the proceeds? --- of the Hollywood stars.

Director Max Skull doesn't particularly care about the weird beliefs of his leading man --- just so long as the work gets done in a timely and professional manner. Of course, with the star's prominent agent and spiritual guide at war for cotidian control, even that basic issue comes into doubt.

But those are the least of the problems with this independent film project. This production's a mess. What else would you expect of a movie made in Panama?

In Panamanian Spanish, there is a term for hangers-on in a prizefighter's entourage --- manzanillos, after the toxic fruit that bear some resemblance to little apples and grow on poisonous trees along the beaches of both Panamanian coasts. And of course, in show business as well as in sports they also have toxic clinging elements. Take the show on the road to Panama and the problem will probably get worse and in this case it did.

So when the money man and the production money disappear, who did it, and why? Is the Colombian with the young fox and the guys with bulges under their jackets in his entourage the production's savior, or is he its mortal enemy? And what about the social climbing doctor and his rabiblanca wife? Or the Fateologists? Or the aggressive agent? Or someone among the endless cast of those seeking to rub shoulders with the stars (or at least get an autograph)? Or should we blame it on the cops?

This is a mystery in the standard format, which means that in the end the villain is outed and the loose ends are explained.

(It's very much unlike real life crime situations. In another professional life I encountered many a lawyer who claimed to be better than Perry Mason. The standard incredulous response to that is "How's that possible? He wins all his cases...." and the comeback is that is all of Perry Mason's clients are innocent. And both as a lawyer and a crime victim, I've generally found that even the most shocking events leave unexplained aspects, even in the minds of the protagonists.)

Anyway, even if this mystery fits the artistic format more closely than the realities of criminology, it's entertaining. Its setting in Panama is, despite a minor incongruity or two, competently done by a Californian who came down here to research her book.

The point isn't to read this fictional novel to learn about Panama. It's to be entertained, especially during the season of the heaviest tropical cloudbursts into which our isthmian calendar is moving. Location Location is, when all is said and done, a mystery that you won't want to put down once you're into it.

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