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While en route to Mexico City to meet
Richard Holt, his son Ken and best friend Sandy Allen, pass
through Laredo, Texas. There they cross the border into Mexico,
where the boys witness the green flame for the first time. It
becomes obvious that the lighter used to create this effect was
meant for another group in a red convertible. After being warned
to stay on the highway, Sandy and Ken proceed south to Mexico
City, for the Pan-American Conference. When Mort Phillips is
picked up as a hitch-hiker and acts suspiciously, the boys realize
that they are in the midst of another mystery.
When Ramon Gonzalez of the Mexican Federal
Police enters the picture and Mort is identified as an FBI agent,
the nature of the mystery emerges. Criminals arrive in Mexico and
disappear, with new identities. Ken and Sandy naturally volunteer
to assist the two law enforcement officers. It is a criminal
called The Baron that the foursome are initially stalking and
losing, in the interior of Mexico. However, they do capture a
prisoner named Mendoza, who is canny enough to fend off their
questions.
Later, as Sandy and Ken continue south on their own, they
stumble across a possible criminal hide-out at a hospital in Rio
Clara. There they are befriended by a youth named Roberto and are
then captured by the gang members Al, Joe, and George. They are
taken to Dr. Gosset in the hospital at the edge of town. He is the
ring leader of the gang and the one responsible for criminals
leading new lives, after plastic surgery with new identities.
When the three boys barricade themselves underground it
is only with Ken's intense drive and Sandy's physical strength
that the plot of the good Doctor is thwarted. But it is Sandy who
devises a means of reaching Mort Phillips via a home made radio.
It remains for the trapped youths to hold off the frenzied attacks
of the gang, until help arrives. They barely do so and thereby
solve The Mystery of the Green Flame.
Reviewed by Steve Servello. |
