CHAPTER ONE

As the story opens, Indiana Jones is in Peru on an archeological dig when a Quechuan porter brings him a wanted poster of Indy himself that the man found hanging on a wall in town. The Quechuan people are the indigenous of Peru.

The wanted poster says the Peruvian Museum Council has accused Indy of being a huaqero (tomb robber). The Peruvian Museum Council is a fictitious entity, soon revealed to have been created by US Army Intelligence to bring Indy to ground to recruit him for a mission.

Page 3 states that Peru and its neighbor Ecuador were at war. This is true. In 1941, the two countries were engaged in a border war from May-October, which ended with the Talara Accord in October and the Rio Protocol that established formal borders between the two nations in January 1942.

Page 4 states that Indy had hated snakes ever since he was 13 years old. This refers to the incident on a circus train where he fell into a crateful of snakes in  "The Cross of Coronado" and the experience seemingly caused his ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) from that time onward. But he had also voiced a hatred of snakes when he was 9 years old in "My First Adventure" (as well as in a few other Young Indy adventures).

Indy has discovered four small, gold figurines in the Incan dig site representing the Mayan god Kukulcan, the feathered serpent: a vulture, a lizard, a fish, and an ear of corn. Kukulcan is an actual deity in Mesoamerican culture. However, there is no particular association of Kukulcan with the vulture, a lizard, a fish, or corn.

Fleeing from the Peruvian soldiers, Indy decides to trek through the jungle into Ecuador to the province of El Oro and then to Puerto Bolívar, where he hopes to catch a ride on a banana boat. Ecuador is the world's leading exporter of bananas.

CHAPTER TWO

On page 10, a Peruvian soldier tells Indy, "Vamos." This is Spanish for "Come on."

On page 11, a soldier shouts, "Para!" This is Spanish for "Stop!"

On page 13, gringo is a term referring to any English-speaking foreigner in a Spanish language country.

On page 18, "Fuego! Fuego!" is Spanish for "Fire! Fire!" 

In General Delgado's office, Indy is reintroduced to Colonel Musgrove, who along with Major Eaton, had given Indy the assignment to find the lost Ark of the Covenant for the United States in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

CHAPTER THREE

Page 28 reveals that Indy had occasionally hung out and spoke with Sir Reginald Brooksbank at the Manhattan location of the Explorers Club. The Explorers Club is an international professional society of explorers and researchers founded in 1904, currently with 34 chapters around the world, including New York City, of which Manhattan is a part. In 1933, in The Philosopher's Stone, Marcus was said to want to introduce Indy to the club.

   Musgrove informs Indy that the mission this time is locating the Akashic Hall of Records, which he says Brooksbank had discovered in Bimini. In the religion of theosophy, the Akashic records are a compendium of everything that has ever happened, is happening, or will happen, to everything in the universe, living or dead. Bimini is a chain of three main islands and several islets and cays that together make up the westernmost district of the Bahamas in the Caribbean Sea near Florida and Cuba.

    Indy brushed up against an artifact called the Omega Book in Secret of the Sphinx, an object which was said to contain the records of every person on Earth from the beginning to the end of humanity.

Page 31 has Indy thinking if there's one thing he hates more than snakes, it was Nazis.

CHAPTER FOUR

Indy and company take what is said to be a Douglas DC-2 to Panama for refueling and then to Costa Rica. This was a real world airplane manufactured from 1934-1939.

When Indy sees that a projector and film reel has been set up on the plane by Nichols and Musgrove for his viewing, he remarks, "It better not be Gone With the Wind because I've seen that one before." This refers to the 1938 historical romance film starring Clark Gable, a blockbuster for its time.

The five headlines on pages 34-35 that Indy says were all events that took place in May-June of that year are correct. Indy was even present for the first one, the Battle of Crete in May in the course of his adventure in The Labyrinth of Horus.

Page 38 refers to Indy's association with Sophia Hapgood and their discovery of the ruins of Atlantis in the The Fate of Atlantis.

    Musgrove asks Indy if he knows of any connection between Atlantis and the Akashic Hall of Records and Indy responds there is none he is aware of. In the fan-produced (but excellent) novelization of The Fate of Atlantis, Sophia does mention to him that Atlantean libraries did not contain books, but instead crystals which can store untold volumes of information, referring to it as the akashic record, a telepathic compendium of universal knowledge, located in the Hall of Wisdom.

On page 39, Edgar Cayce and Charles Webster Leadbetter (sic) are discussed. Cayce (1877-1945) was an American clairvoyant and prophet who claimed the ability to diagnose diseases in others and find recommended treatments while he was asleep, which many of his supporters attributed to an ability to access the Akashic Records. Leadbeater (1854-1934) was a British author on occult subjects and member of the Theosophical Society who also claimed to be clairvoyant and able to access a non-physical repository of records that has widely come to be associated with the Akashic Records concept.

Indy is correct on page 40 when he says the word "akashic" is derived from the Sanskrit word "akasha" meaning "sky" or "space" and was only coined in the modern era (by writers associated with the Theosophical Society in the late 19th Century).

Also on page 40, the Library of Alexandria existed from roughly the 3rd Century BC to the 3rd Century AD in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. It was said to be one of the most significant libraries in the world. Indy seems to be incorrect in saying that it was established by Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), a Macedonian king who ruled one of the largest empires of the ancient world. The library is generally believed to have been founded by Ptolemy I and established by Ptolemy II. The library is believed to have been lost in stages over several centuries through fire that destroyed records, war damage, and political neglect over time.

Musgrove remarks to Indy that he seems to be dismissing the Akashic Hall of Records as fantasy due to its association with psychics, to which Indy responds, "Let me put it this way. I've had some bizarre experiences, even a few things I would consider fantastic...things I don't believe will ever be explained by science. But when it comes to psychics, I can't overlook the financial angle[...]Maybe it's just me, but until a psychic can tell me exactly how I got this scar on my chin or accurately predict the scores of the next World Series, I'm going to assume every last one of them is a huckster." Indy's chin scar, of course, was obtained when he amateurishly tried to use a bullwhip against a lion when he was 13 years old in "The Cross of Coronado". The World Series is Major League Baseball's annual championship series of games in the United States and Canada.

On page 41, Musgrove and Nichols play a film reel for Indy that was made by his friend Brooksbank on July 26, 1941. This tells us the events of this novel must take place post-July 26. Page 3 told us only that Indy was at the Peruvian dig site in late July.

Pages 42-43 reveal, via Brooksbank's statements in the flim reel, that Musgrove truly regrets what happened with his agreement with Indy regarding the disposition of the Ark of the Covenant (again, back in 1936 in Raiders of the Lost Ark).

On page 43, Brooksbank, on the film reel, tells Indy how he got the scar on his chin and that it was the same day he got his hat. However, a young Indy was said to have given away his original fedora to the child lama Dentsen in The Child Lama. But, as PopApostle argued in that novel's study, it may be that the sensitive lama came to realize how important the hat was to the erstwhile adventurer and gave it back to him at some point.

The information given on page 44 about the 1941 World Series is correct.

The Brooksbank film tells Indy to go to Palmar Sur and find the Three Sisters. Palmar Sur is a town in the Osa region of Costa Rica. The stone spheres called the Three Sisters appear to be a fictitious name, but many stone spheres ranging in size from about 3 cenitmeters to over 2 meters have been found in Costa Rica, believed to have been made by the pre-Columbian Diquis culture from 300-1550 AD. The purpose of these spheres is unknown, but it has been speculated that the different sized spheres may represent the solar system or assorted nodes of the sun and moon, perhaps aligned with roads and paths leading to the homes of chiefs.

On page 45, Amalgamated Fruit Industries is a fictitious company.

CHAPTER FIVE

On page 48, the United States Army Air Corps 32 Pursuit Group was an actual air unit assigned to Rio Hato Army Air Base, Panama to protect the Panama Canal Zone, just as stated here. It was based there from 1940-1943. It is now known as the 32nd Air Expeditionary Group of the U.S. Air Force in Europe. Rio Hato Army Air Base is now the Scarlett Martínez International Airport.

At Rio Hato, Indy sees several Curtiss P-36s and Boeing P-26 Peashooters parked at the airfield. These were actual American fighter aircraft of the time.

CHAPTER SIX

On page 63, Nichols' use of "K.O." in a sentence would seem to be a non-standard usage of abbreviation for "Commanding Officer", which would normally be "C.O." It may be intended as a clue that Nichols is not an American, but German, as he is later revealed to be. In a German military context, "K.O." could be shorthand for "Kommandierender Offizier" (commanding officer).

Indy, disguised a U.S. Army sergeant, drives Musgrove and Nichols off the base in a battered Ford military car to the nearby town of Santa Clara. Santa Clara is an actual village about 5 miles from the former location of the base.

As Indy says on page 65, el Martillo is Spanish for "the Hammer", the nickname of his friend who owns a cantina in the village.

On page 66, Yanquis is Spanish for "Yankees", persons from the United States.

CHAPTER SEVEN

On page 73, "Buenas tardes," is Spanish for "Good afternoon."

Bert refers to the two men she hired to watch the place while she was gone, Tomás and Geraldo, as "Tom and Jerry". This is a reference to the cartoons about a cat, Tom, and a mouse, Jerry, produced by MGM at various times since 1940.

Bert tells Indy that Palma Sur is about 300 miles away. That is about the correct flying distance from Santa Clara, Panama to Palma Sur, Costa Rica.

On page 83, Indy asks some laborers at AFI if the stories he'd heard about the discovery of strange stone spheres were true. The conversation then goes, "Sí." "Qué distancia hay a las Tres Hermanas?" "No está lejos." This is Spanish for: "Yes." "How far is it to the Three Sisters?" "It's not far."

On page 84, the ditched Musgrove and Nichols think Indy might have headed for Panama City, the capital of Panama.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Page 89 states that some people believed the stone spheres may have gold or gems hidden inside and would drill or explode some spheres open seeking the treasure, which was never found. This is one early speculation about the stones that occurred.

Holding the small keystone near the last of the Three Sisters, Indy is presented with a vision of a Mayan ziggurat. "Ziggurat" is actually a term used for the somewhat pyramidal structures built in ancient Mesopotamia. The Mayan pyramids of Central America that are somewhat similar to ziggurats are usually just referred to as pyramids or temple-pyramids.

Indy realizes that he recognizes the pyramid in the vision as one that he'd read about a few years earlier involving excavations made by the Danish archeologist Franz Blom. Franz Blom (1893-1963) was a Danish explorer, archaeologist, and writer best known for his work in Mesoamerica, especially among the ancient Maya. 

Indy asks Bert to fly him to Uxmal in the Yucatán, about 45 miles south of Mérida, so he can see the pyramid from his vision, which he recognized as one called the Pyramid of the Sorcerer. Uxmal is an ancient Mayan city considered one of the most important archeological sites of that culture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mérida is the capital of Yucatán. The Pyramid of the Sorcerer is an actual Mayan pyramid, but more commonly known as the Pyramid of the Magician.

Indy's estimate that it is about 900 miles from Palma Sur to Uxmal is correct.

Bert wants to know the truth about what Indy is doing flying all over Central America with a wad a cash. She asks him to give her the Reader's Digest version. Reader's Digest is a general interest magazine published in the U.S. and a few other nations since 1922.

CHAPTER NINE

As part of their deception as a mail carrier and his fiance, Bert decides to call Indy "Hank". Ironically, though she doesn't know his real name is Henry, "Hank" is a common nickname for "Henry".

CHAPTER TEN

    Bert asks Indy who was the sorcerer of the pyramid and he says it was said to have been a dwarf who built it overnight. This is part of the legend of the pyramid.

    Bert retorts that she bets the sorcerer didn't look anything like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. Mickey Mouse, of course, is a cartoon character and official mascot of the Walt Disney Company. Fantasia is a 1940 animated musical anthology film which featured as one of it segments "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" starring Mickey Mouse.

On page 119, looking at the Mayan ruins, Bert remarks that they've let the place go to "H-E-double-toothpicks." This is a more polite way of saying "hell".

On page 120, Indy tells Bert to go to the U.S. Consulate in Mérida near the Parque del Centenario (Centennial Park). The park Indy refers to is probably the Parque Zoológico del Centenario, a park/zoo combination. Perhaps the U.S. Consulate was close to it in 1941, but currently it is about 5 miles away.

On page 125, Indy has a flashback vision of himself as a 6-year old child when he and his parents lived in Princeton, New Jersey.

Indy refers to his old friend Brooksbank as "Brookie".

CHAPTER ELEVEN

No notes.

EPILOGUE

Musgrove tells Indy that he believes it's inevitable that the U.S. would be drawn into the war in Europe and he invites Indy to work with Army Intelligence on an ongoing basis as that time approaches. Indy says he'll think about it. This may be a foreshadowing of work with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as mentioned in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

At the end of the epilogue, Indy gives Bert the note from Brooksbank of the coming World Series scores so she can place some bets for herself. He tells her he's not going to because "I like the Dodgers too much." The note reveals that the New York Yankees will beat the Brooklyn Dodgers (now in Los Angeles) in the 1941 World Seres. When Indy was 8 years old, his favorite baseball team was said to be the New York Giants (now in San Francisco).