This is Books and Notchos, a podcast for those of us who find excitement in the pages of a good book.

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We are here to help you find something great to read.

The year is 1943, and Indiana Jones takes a leave from the U.S. Army to meet up with his friend Mack in Haiti, to go deep into the jungle to locate the Heart of Darkness, a giant black pearl that is rumored to have mystical powers.

Indy and Mac hired the local Marie, who has some talent in the voodoo arts, to guide them in their band on their trek through the treacherous jungle.

But little does Indy know that he is being followed by three different groups who want the pearl's power for themselves. A powerful voodoo priest, Bukman, who is already so powerful he can transcend to the

spirit world and raise the dead, wants the Pearl to accentuate his already immense power and become

invincible. And then there is also a contingent of Germans led by Colonel Gruber close behind,

and a Japanese spy codenamed

Yamada, leading a group to follow Indy and steal the prize once it has been located.

Turns out the heart of darkness is not only a powerful conduit for the black magic, but the

wooden bottle that contains it has a formula for raising the dead by alternative means.

Will Indian Mac retrieve the pearl for a museum, or will one or all of these power-hungry forces get in the way?

That is what awaits in Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead.

Welcome to Books and Notchos. This is Brock, and today I will be reviewing Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead by Steve Perry.

You may know Steve Perry from his varied Star Wars works that include Death Star and Shadows of the Empire,

or perhaps from his Matador series or Tom Clancy Netforce books or many others.

I like what little of Mr. Perry's work I have read in the past,

and when I found out he was the author of this latest Indiana Jones novel,

I thought it was a good fit. When I heard they were going to do a new Indiana Jones novel, I got very excited. I had a great time in the early 1990s reading Rob McGregor's Indiana Jones books. They took place pre-Rater's All Lost Dark and were in continuity with each other, fleshing out the character of Indiana Jones as a young archaeologist as he traveled the world in search of treasures, finding adventure in love along the way.

I know those books were not well received by all indie fans, but I enjoyed them well enough, and there were six novels after McGregor stopped, but the new author didn't hold my interest, and I gave up midway through Indiana Jones and the White Witch.

Max McCoy took over for the final four books, the last of which came out in 1999, all of which I

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