Patty Lou Cutting: The Clive Cussler Conundrum

As we all know, odd little facts about a story can stay with the reader for years, so after last week’s team success in finding a book I had sought for years, I thought I would throw another wider ranging mystery your way to capture your imaginations.

I touched on this a few years ago in another aged post, along with some other various things. It comes from the book Inca Gold, a book of action, adventure, and a lost treasure, which always adds something thrilling to a story.

Towards the end of the book, protagonist Dirk Pitt comes across the grave of 10-year-old girl, Patty Lou Cutting, in the Sonoran Desert, Mexico, upon which the are the words:

The dark night some stars shine through.

The dullest morn a radiant brew.

And where dusk comes, God’s hand to you.

The significance of which is never expanded upon, it just hangs there cryptically, tantalisingly challenging the reader with its nebulous presence.

Having a look around the internet, it is confirmed by the author himself that the grave is real.  He came across it in a small village graveyard, whilst on an archaeological tour of the Sonoran desert.  It stood out being the only gravestone written in English.

Cussler, perplexed at the riddle of who the girl was, inserted his experience into the novel in the hope that someone would come forward with information to provide closure.  It appears the best guess so far is that a Mormon missionary went down to Mexico, and Patty Lou was his daughter.

As appealing as this mystery is – and an answer is always welcome – perhaps it is best left as it is; a riddle of time and place to be romanticised and speculated upon.   That this appeared so unexpectedly in my reading journey is just one of the many joys of reading widely, but researching and sharing has been even more fun.  I wonder what other mysteries are still to be uncovered…