A DEATH IN PANAMA

A Death in Panama confronts the frightening world of early 20th century Panama

when the canal was being built. In 1976, the Americans are planning to return the

canal to Panama. Many are terrified that the horrific secrets of that earlier time will

be exposed. Two men, Octavius Bryant and Rupert Barnes, survivors of that lawless

period, are particularly concerned and find themselves drawn into a conflict that had

begun seventy years earlier. The novel depicts the transformations in both these

men from ambitious youths to vengeful old men. While Barnes is determined to

eliminate Bryant, Bryant has a more ambitious goal: the destruction of the Canal itself.