Gold of the Gods

"Gold of the Gods" by Arthur B. Reeve is a mystery novel likely written during the early 20th century. The narrative follows scientific detective Craig Kennedy as he investigates the murder of a prominent Peruvian scholar, Don Luis de Mendoza, and the theft of an ancient dagger linked to ancient Inca treasures. Key characters include Kennedy, his assistant Walter Jameson, Professor Allan Norton, and the grieving daughter of the murdered man, Inez de Mendoza. At the start of the story, Professor Norton rushes into Kennedy's laboratory, distraught over the theft of a treasured Peruvian dagger from the University Museum, claiming it bears mysterious markings that he had hoped to decipher after his recent expedition. The narrative quickly transitions to a murder case when Jameson learns of Mendoza's death. The plot thickens as Inez reveals her father's strange obsession with a curse tied to the treasure and a mysterious entity associated with the dagger. As Kennedy investigates the crime scene and its implications, he begins to unravel a web of greed, curses, and historical secrets that encircle both the dagger and Mendoza's fate. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Arthur Benjamin Reeve was an American mystery writer. He is known best for creating the series character Professor Craig Kennedy, sometimes called "The American Sherlock Holmes", and Kennedy's Dr. Watson-like sidekick Walter Jameson, a newspaper reporter, for 18 detective novels. Reeve is famous mostly for the 82 Craig Kennedy stories, published in Cosmopolitan magazine between 1910 and 1918. These were collected in book form; with the third collection, the short stories were published grouped together as episodic novels. The 12-volume publication Craig Kennedy Stories was released during 1918; it reissued Reeve's books-to-date as a matched set.