The Sinister Strangers File

A LONE PARK RANGER UP AGAINST A CONSPIRACY TO STEAL AN OIL KINGDOM - AND AN INFURIATING YOUNG WOMAN WHO MAY BE PART OF IT! "Clarence Budington Kelland is master of the slick, swift, entertaining yarn." -New York Times "First Kelland book I ever read.

Got me hooked." Goodreads Another slightly off-kilter Kelland mystery, filled with unforgettable characters and pungently clever dialogue - an adroit mixture of the deadly dangerous and the dangerously funny.

It all starts in midcentury Yosemite National Park when probationary ranger Linc Sawtell becomes suspicious of Joan Vanderlee, maid/secretary to Letitia Potwin, an outrageous Boston Blue Blood on a hunt for a real-life treasure lost in the region centuries before. Joan seems unusually independent and out-spoken for a servant.

His suspicions deepen with the arrival of a highly-cultured Chinese businesman who seems to know Letitia Potwin very well. And continue to deepen with the arrival of several other larger-than-life visitors.

There is Zaharados, a wily visitor from the Levantine, whose retainer makes a point of demonstrating his expertise with a blade by embedding it in a wall uncomfortably close to Linc.

There is Johannes van der Poot, a millionaire with an international reputation (not all good); his gorgeous daughter Katrina, with a taste for the dangerous life, who exudes sex appeal and appears to have a passion for Park Rangers, particularly Linc.

Then the equally gorgeous television wrestler "Nature Boy" Nussler, with his long golden locks and breath-taking physique, seemingly sweiping Joan Vanderlee off her feet. Adding to the mix is Haroun, Sheik el Samari, a young Arab prince fresh out of Oxford, who acts and talks just like the cliché Britisher, plus his rather large entourage.

Capping everything off is Whitey, a Chicago gunman, and his cohorts, who rent a cabin just outside the park, where they seem to do nothing but play cards and wait. Every time Linc sees Joan with Nature Boy Nussler his blood boil