A Brooding, Darker Hero: A Review of Indiana Jones and the Philosopher’s Stone

Leading up to the final Indiana Jones movie, The Dial of Destiny, I knew I would be in an Indiana Jones mood. As a result, I reached back to the 1990s and the novels written by a trio of writers: Rob MacGregor, Martin Caidin, and Max McCoy. I had read the first novel, The Peril at Delphi, back when it was released in 1991. But that Indy was younger and, for whatever reason, I kept buying the books but not reading them. After a cursory bit of research in 2023, I discovered that McCoy was hired to write stories more like the Indy we meet in the original trilogy and what better place to start that his first of four entries.

The Premise

Like every movie, this one starts with a prelude. Indy is in British Honduras searching for an idol. He gets it but, like in Raiders, he must give it up to Sarducci, the big bad of this book. This guy’s Italian and they stand in for the Nazis, which was a nice change. Interestingly, there is a crystal skull in this tomb.

Back in the US, Indy’s old pal, Marcus Brody, can’t help Indy as he gets fired from his job for refusing to help the FBI locate the stolen Voynich manuscript, the alleged steps one needs to deploy alchemy, the ability to transmute lead to gold.

Despondent, Indy stumbles into a rare bookstore and learns the rest of the story about the manuscript, specifically about Alistair Dunstin, the leading figure and the man accused of stealing the manuscript and then disappearing. Oh, and the Italians show up and chasing ensues.

Unsurprisingly, Indy meets Alecia, a fetching lady in England who is Alisair’s twin sister. Together, they bicker and banter as they team up to find the manuscript, save Alistair, and find the philosopher’s stone before Sarducci and his minions do.

So, every Indiana Jones story ever.

The Setting

It’s 1933, so Mussolini has come to power but Hitler isn’t there yet. But the rumblings are there. With this still being a younger Indy, we get a mix of the Raiders version (darker, more broody) and the Temple of Doom guy who is after fortune and glory. That said, Indy does seem more interested in stopping the bad guys than acquiring an object for a museum. Still, there’’s a sequence where he’s basically a brooding hard-boiled detective walking the streets of New York. That’s the kind of thing you don’t see in any of the movies.

The In-Between Parts of a Movie

You know how in the movies, we see a map and a red line that tracks Indy’s movements by plane or boat? Well, have you ever wondered what it was like to get on a plane or a boat? If so, then McCoy works some small-time magic and reveals the steps Indy has to go through to travel during this adventure.

He loses his luggage. He’s broke and needs money wired to him. He has to find someway to get to the area where the Stone might be located. All in all, it’s a nice change of pace to experience these unseen aspects from the movies.

The Zeppelin Sequence

Indy crosses the Atlantic via an American zeppelin and this entire sequence should have made it into a movie. But the good thing about McCoy is that he’s great at the visual details so you can watch these scenes in your head. It is quite interesting and shows off again some downtime moments.

The Real History

McCoy didn’t just come up with the parts of this story out of whole cloth. In those pre-internet days, he actually did research, including the now-quaint interlibrary loan. He puts the real history in the back of the book so you can read this tale and wonder what’s real and what’s imagination.

The Verdict

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was exactly what I wanted to read as Indy’s last movie is now in theaters. The only question now is this: do I keep reading these books for the rest of the summer or save them all for subsequent years and break one out every May and pretend like I’m getting a new Indiana Jones movie.

Come to think of it, I kinda like that latter idea.