| Title | : | The Xibalba Murders (Lara McClintoch Archeological Mystery, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0991679865 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780991679867 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 290 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1997 |
@71, 330 words
The Xibalba Murders (Lara McClintoch Archeological Mystery, #1) Reviews
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* In 2012, Lyn Hamilton became my favourite Canadian authoress. She died of cancer but I leave two to three years in between her fantastic multicultural series and have many left to enjoy and admire. I received no comments when I wrote this and appreciate hearing from you, about a favourite novel now. :) Hugs, Carolyn! *
Wow! I can’t believe how swiftly this novelist swept me away. The motion chugs along so well on every page, I wonder if Lyn Hamilton paired her manuscript down to these parts, or if it was action-packed from the start. She had room to pause now and again for details. A few scenes were glossed over, that I would like to have savoured. Notwithstanding, it is a resounding A+ and for a début novel! I am also pleased and proud to discover this gifted writer is Canadian. Lyn’s style stands out.
One day in about 2009, on our way out of a large charity sale; the irresistible title and cover of “The Celtic Riddle” halted our stride at a stray table. Our home was amply-stocked but this paperback was only $1.00. Seeing that it comprises a Canadian series, convinced me to buy it and seek the first three.
A technique I have noticed in my own novel draft, is to skip obvious logistics. What a surreal treat: to find my approach in print, working so well! Say characters need to visit a museum. Just segue to the characters there. Don’t waste paragraphs on a drive. Lyn builds information where it counts. Passionately thorough with anthropology, each chapter is named with Maya weekdays! Her special touches make this work of fiction richly educational.
Another unexpected connection is that I am fond of the Maya, have visited three pyramid sites, and am familiar with the Yucatán region of México. I knew every Spanish word and ate up additional information. Do disregard occasional lacklustre reviews. I wondered about them, when I first saw a few of Lyn’s novels. Trust me: finishing this story kept me awake until 4:30 AM and I want more! I have never been more highly-rewarded by an author discovery. -
This was a nice enough little book to pass a couple of hours but not outstanding in any way. It contained a huge amount of information about the Mayan culture which was interesting but not always totally relevant.
The mystery was good and the book was certainly action packed. Our MC, Lara, changed from being a shop owner and university student into some kind of superwoman, climbing out of bathroom windows and investigating cave systems in the middle of the night. She also fell into other people's beds quite easily. There was the stereotypical bad cop in charge of the murder investigations though the author gave him an interesting non stereotypical ending. And a number of good guys turned out to be bad guys and vice versa. Trust no one!
Not sure if I liked it enough to try the next book. Possibly. We shall see. -
I guess that the purpose of various reading challenges is to get us to read outside our comfort zones. I chose this book to be my “title beginning with X” choice for this year. Although I am a sometimes mystery reader, I’m generally not a big fan of the cozy mysteries and that is how I would have to categorize this one.
What I did really like in this book was the emphasis on Mayan mythology and culture. I hope that the author did her research, as I’d like to believe that I learned a few things about both. However, this is very much a first book as well as the first book in a series. Not too bad for the first novel of a bureaucrat (Hamilton was director of the governmental branch responsible for licensing of archaeology in the province of Ontario) and it did get nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel in 1998. Apparently Ms. Hamilton visited the sites where she set her books—what a wonderful way to choose your travel destinations!
I can’t say that I feel impelled to read the further adventures of Lara McClintoch, despite the fact that there are ten more books in the series. I suppose that if one of them fit into another reading challenge, that I could be convinced to pick it up. -
Sadly, Xibalba was only the background color and not the actually murderer (or recipient of victims) and the plot was pretty easy to unravel (for me, not the dumbass doing the investigating) but this was still a moderately entertaining mystery. I appreciated the effort the author made to incorporate the Mayan calender and it was nice to have an archaeological mystery set in Mexico rather than the over-played Egypt. -
2018 Reading Challenge: prompt from a past Reading Challenge
Book for all Seasons prompt: q,x,z author or title
So this is where I decided to stop writing a review on every book I read this year only about six books in
Let me tell you why
It was dull
Dishwater
I had nothing I wished to pronounce
No feelings either way
And now I have the whole series -
Number one in the Lara McClintoch Archeological Mystery series, takes our heroine from her home in Toronto to the Yucatan peninsula. Lara’s marriage has ended and she’s lost her business, so when a former teacher and mentor calls and asks her to come to Merida, Mexico to help him with an important new discovery, she jumps at the chance. But Dr Hernan Castillo is killed before she can meet with him and now she’s a suspect in his murder. She doesn’t know whom to trust, but is certain if she can find out what Castillo had discovered she’ll solve the murder.
Every chapter began with some explanation of the relevance of the day to the Mayan calendar and Maya gods. Lara dreamed about Mayan deities and used those dreams to guide her actions. I am a fan of magical realism, but Hamilton’s efforts seemed heavy-handed. I also thought Lara behaved in a reckless manner on more than one occasion. I identified the culprit long before she did, but then the book would have been very short if she’d caught on when I did!
All in all, it was a somewhat entertaining mystery … a bit more hard-hitting than most cozies, though Lara IS an amateur sleuth. I did enjoy learning a bit more about Mayan lore. -
This book was little more then OK, I didn't care to much for any of the characters, because we hardly got to know any of them and the heroine made way too many bad personal decisions
That plus the mystery was far to easy to solve made for a rather poor reading experience. The background info was interesting and truly that and the setting are the only reasons I finished the book. -
I loved the setting and the Mayan history & legends. But the protagonist's impulsive Indiana Jones - like stunts frustrated me no end. I found myself calling her an idiot out loud several times and nearly put the book aside unfinished. The only thing that kept me reading was the thought that maybe what seemed obvious to me was actually just overplayed red herrings and author Lyn Hamilton was going to surprise me with a real twist at the end. But sadly no.
I've read other books in the Lara McClintoch series and liked them a lot. I don't remember Lara being so slow on the uptake in them nor the plot twists so easily anticipated. To be fair, I admit I didn't anticipate all the times she took off on escapades without telling anyone (about 10 times more often than the usual mystery formula) or the number of times she crawled in and out of windows, or grabbed evidence or rare artifacts without thinking through ramifications. I do confess to frequently thinking "what the hell is she doing now?" so I guess it was a mystery in that sense. It just wasn't what I was hoping for.
This was the author's first of the series, so maybe she needed a book or two to get in stride. I'd still be open to reading more based on the others that I read, but I was very disappointed in this one. I'd really been looking forward to reading it.
It's not at all a bad book. Hamilton writes very well. Perhaps it just wasn't a good book for me for 2020. For those who don't mind protagonists who are all action, but not much thought, this could be very nice escape reading. -
BORING! BORING! BORING! Need I say more? Well I will anyway.
This is dry as dirt and it gets so bogged down in explaining the intricasies of the Mayan calendar that you actually lose sight of the storyline. Too much information that really isn't necessary to solving the murder mystery. I had to force myself to continue to read and to finish this book. I should have followed my instincts and put it down after the first 50 pages of tedious writing. -
Why do all of these kinds of Cozy Mystery stories all have women who think they are the best people to solve murders, or that they are the only ones who can discover the facts of what is going on and solve all of the clues? They do dumb things and risk their lives and everything turns out well in the end. Is this reality?
As for the story. It was okay. I liked some of the characters very much and thought some of them were just too "much". What I liked best was the information on the Maya. I thought that part of the story very interesting. I liked the chapter names done in words from the Mayan calendar and the background of the Mayan Gods' stories given in little vignettes. I did like the style of the writing. It was an easy read, and I did not see everything that was going to happen before it did. There was a good twist at the end and one of the bad/good guys was a surprise.
I might read a few more of Ms Hamilton's books... -
A fellow Canadian wrote this novel about a woman pulled into some art hi-jinx and murder in Mexico. It did have some interesting details about the Mayan culture, but it wasn’t a compelling enough novel to have me continue the series.
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Goodreads Description- Lara McClintoch, her marriage ended and her antiques business sold, eagerly embarks on a trip to Mexico to help an old friend solve a mystery. On arrival, her friend puts off their meeting and then disappears. After Lara witnesses a brazen robbery of a valuable statue of the ancient Mayan civilization and stumbles on a corpse in a museum of antiquities, she becomes a police suspect. Afraid of the police and unsure whom to trust, Lara follows clues pointing to black marketeers and zealous revolutionaries. This dangerous trail takes her to remote archaeological ruins, lush jungles, and bustling streets filled with revelers. Lara engages in a thrilling battle of wits and courage to unmask a killer and stop a tomb-robber in the shadowy world of Xibalba, the Lords of Death.
I have to say that I just stumbled across this book by accident. I had never heard of the author nor this series. However, I was extremely surprised by the excellent writing and storytelling that this book has to offer. It is not only the adventure of Lara McClintoch who has traveled to the Yucatan Peninsula to help her friend find the "rabbit who writes" that was exciting. The research behind her book is simply amazing. Each chapter is named after a Maya day and the name is explained and the reader is given it's meaning. Then the author proceeds to relate each chapter to the name's meaning. She also writes many remarkable facts about the Maya culture: the Maya Calendar, the legends of the Maya Underworld, and the Maya's detailed history. The story is also set in the beautiful Mayan ruins of Chitzen Itza where the author beautifully describes the huge temple ruins, the ball courts, and other Maya landmarks that still exist for tourists to visit. I have actually been to these ruins myself and she has done a wonderful job describing the lush jungle surroundings, the ruins, and the delicious foods from that part of the world.
The book is very fast paced and had me on the edge of my seat. I read straight through the book in one day. It was all so interesting. The author did a fantastic job of weaving the murder mystery plotline with the actual facts of the setting that I was racing along with Lara through the twists and turns of the plotline and wondering what would turn up next. I am very happy that I discovered this series. It looks as if the other books in the series take place all over the world and I can't wait to join Lara wherever her next adventure takes her. 5 stars! Highly recommended! -
I was definitely interested in an archeological mystery so I picked up The Xibalba Murders. Unfortunately, it wasn't exciting or engrossing. Perhaps the series gets better.
Lara, the archaeologist, takes it upon herself to investigate her friend's death in Mexico, apparently over a precious Maya artifact.
I can appreciate the names of the chapters being the names of the days in Mayan and there being a bit of a mystical twist with her dreams of the Lords of Xibalba, but it wasn't enough to make this a really good, interesting story. Perhaps if it had been longer, allowing for more depth of character and plot development, I wouldn't have cringed every time she snuck out of the hotel or broke into the museum like a little kid.
I may or may not read another in this series. -
For my A-Z challenge. If it hadn't been for needing this one for the challenge, I wouldn't have finished it. I give it 1.5 stars only because the mystery was ok despite the fact that it took half the book to get going. The main character relied too heavily on her dreams which seemed to be presented as valid as actual Mayan history. I had high hopes for it because I love archealogy, but not sure I'll read another at this point.
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Every time I read something like this I pause somewhere along the line (perhaps more than once) and say to myself, gosh, this is an enjoyable reading experience, and I'd love to go for lunch with the protagonist. This one also grew on me as I read it, and I liked it (as well as the protagonist) more as I went along. I began reading it on my phone at odd moments, but at some point near the middle I noticed I was having more than the usual number of odd moments, and finally decided to dive in whole-hog. So I switched over to reading on my usual device.
The basic story is like this: Divorced Canadian antiquities dealer Lara McClintoch heads to Mexico at the invitation of an old friend/mentor, but finds that he's been murdered before she can even meet him. Soon there's a daring daylight robbery (in a fancy cocktail bar) during which a valuable artifact is stolen. Lara ends up being suspected of more than one crime, meets the elite of the city (as well as more than one potential love-interest), and begins to investigate on her own. Charmingly. She's really my kind of heroine: independent, clever, well-educated, athletic enough to exit from second-story windows then climb down trees to go adventuring in the middle of the night, and so forth. Later in the book she has a harrowing opportunity to simultaneously demonstrate her natatorial prowess and intestinal fortitude. ;-)
I'm really glad I decided to pay 99 cents for this book, first of the series; and that I took advantage of the July freebie festival at Smashwords to obtain the entire set of Lara McClintoch mysteries for free. Thank you, heirs of Lyn Hamilton.
There are a few odd typos sprinkled around as a result, quite obviously, of being produced via OCR from a scan of the work. For example, "comer" is a frequent typo for "corner". -
Antiques dealer Lara McClintoch goes to Mexico at the calling of her local expert, Dr. Hernan Castillo Rivera, because he tells her there is an important archaeological dig going on that may result in some new finds for her shop.
Almost immediately after Lara's arrival, Castillo Rivera disappears and Lara finds herself drawn into intrigue not only surrounding the archaeological site but also the museum for which Castillo Rivera was once the director.
I began to suspect the "whodunnit" at about the two-thirds mark of the story, but still enjoyed the twists, turns and adventures of this thriller that deals with the history of the Mayan culture and also with the realities and challenges of archaeology in a third-world region.
Highly recommended. -
A very interesting murder mystery involving the Maya
Culture.
Lara McClinton was forced to sell her antique design
shop due to a divorce. She enrolled in college to
study the ancient Maya. While on break a friend contacts
her to come to Mexico. He is an archaeologist and
wants to consult her on a discovery.
Disappearance, murder, archeological digs, Xibalba who is
the Lord of Death, lush jungles, writing rabbits, robbery
of a statue, revolutionary forces, black marketeers plus
suspense, drama, danger and the unexpected make this
an enjoyable read. -
Entertaining archaeological mystery set in the Yucatan. I liked the twist at the end, except
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This series was recommended to me recently because of my interest in archaeology and my love of reading mystery series. Since this is billed as an archaeological mystery series, it certainly seemed like the perfect fit.
The Xibalba Murders, the first book in the series, seemed especially promising since it is set in Mexico and involves a mystery about a Mayan artifact and archeological dig. I've been fascinated by Mayan history ever since my long ago college days when I did a research paper about that culture for my Cultural Anthropology class. And so, I settled down to read the book with some enthusiasm.
On the whole, I found the book to be mildly entertaining. There were things that I liked about it and things that i didn't like, but considered as a whole, it was okay.
What I liked about it could be summed up as the Mayan aspects. The author names every chapter after a day in the Mayan calendar and she relates the events of that day to the characteristics which the Mayans attributed to the day. That was a clever way of telling the story.
Also, throughout the book, Hamilton gives brief dissertations on various parts of Mayan mythology, especially as it relates to the Hero Twins and their battles with the Lords of Death, rulers of Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. These explanations were to the point and clearly stated, something that can be difficult to accomplish with that very convoluted mythology. They added a lot to the story and made the fascination with the potential of discovering a previously unknown Codex, which is at the center of the plot, more understandable.
The plot itself was pretty interesting. A noted Mexican archeologist is on to what he believes will be a great discovery of a Mayan artifact. For some inexplicable reason (and this was a weakness in the plot), instead of turning to other archeologists for help, he calls his friend Lara McClintoch, an antiques dealer in Toronto, and asks her to come down to help him. McClintoch has just gone though a messy divorce and has had to sell her antiques store and divide the profits with her ex. Now, she is at loose ends and jumps at the chance to go to Mexico, to the little Yucatan town of Merida to aid her friend.
When she gets there, she receives a message from the archaeologist delaying their meeting. Soon the action heats up and dead bodies are appearing around town - the first one discovered by Lara, which in the eyes of the local police, makes her the prime suspect.
Into the mix comes a tall, dark, and handsome British-born archaeologist and his handsome and darker Mexican friend. Lara, of course, is almost immediately besotted with the Brit, which perhaps tells us everything we need to know about her judgment in men since the guy is obviously such a rotter!
Okay, here's a thought. Why do mystery writers with women as their main characters seem to always feel they have to throw in that "tall, dark, and handsome" guy as a romantic interest for the woman? Did Miss Marple ever have a love interest? I don't think so, and yet she managed to solve mysteries just fine. Unlike Lara McClintoch who doesn't really solve the mystery so much as having its solution thrust upon her.
Do you get the idea that i didn't much like Lara? Well, you would be correct in that deduction. She really came across as much too slow-witted to ever be a successful detective. I knew who the culprit(s) was(were) as soon as I met him/her and I found myself wanting to shake Ms. McClintoch as she made bad decisions at every turn. Moreover, Lara often trusts the wrong people and distrusts those she should trust. Not a good recommendation for a "detective."
Well, this was the first in the series and it wasn't uniformly awful, just kind of meh. One of the attractions of reading series is that they often get better after the initial offering, so I think I will probably read a couple more in the series to give it every chance to grow on me. Maybe Lara will wise up a bit by then.
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Initially I picked up The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton for two reasons: 1) It's got a lovely "X" right there at the beginning and that knocks off a rather difficult letter for the Alphabet Soup Challenge and 2) It's set in Mexico, so it works for the Around the World Challenge. It also counts for a whole boatload of other challenges, so I thought it was all good. But geez, Louise, it was difficult to finish this rather blah, rather predictable book. First problem: It's written in the first person. Man, I hate those. It's rare that a first-person narrator works well for me. This one doesn't. Second problem: Too much introspection on the part of the narrator (bad divorce, no love-life, blah-blah-blah). Third problem: this supposedly "smart enough to run her own business (pre-divorce) and smart enough to go back to school as a graduate student" woman immediately starts blabbing about why Dr. Hernan Castillo asked her to come to Mexico to the first impressive male stranger she comes across. Bet that's going to work out well for her. But remember--she's told us that she dresses in "student uniform" of denim, khakis, and black to keep the men away ('cause the bad divorce was a thing, you know). Right. She's not interested or impressed by men at all. Uh-huh.
But you want to know what this is about, right? Whether the mystery is interesting. Well, you'd think so from the blurb:
After receiving a cryptic phone call from Dr. Hernan Castillo, an expert in Mayan history, Lara McClintoch travel to Merida, Mexico, to help him with a mysterious project that he has undertaken. But on arriving in Merida, Lara sees no sign of the good doctor--until his lifeless body turns up in his office at the museum. Retracing the doctor's recent footsteps, she is drawn into the jungles surrounding Merida. For in this lush paradise are the temples of Mayan gods--and the camps of modern-day rebels fighting to save their Mayan heritage. As the body count escalates, Lara must uncover the secrets of the Mayan underworld known as Xibalba--and journey into the very heart of darkness....
I know I thought so. But even though I know in these cozy mysteries we have to agree to believe the amateur detective is going to outsmart the police, I just couldn't do it this time. Because quite honestly, I don't believe Lara is smart enough. She does some really stupid things and trusts people that she has no reason to trust. And Hamilton gives no explanation in the storyline to make me believe that she should have a reason. One star.
First posted on my blog
My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. -
I must admit that although the blurb seemed intriguing enough I only picked up this book because I need an X title for my A to Z Challenge. I thought that it would be a fun challenge but now it seems wrong somehow to spend my time reading books just because I need to strike out a letter. Having said that, it doesn't mean I wasted my time by reading this, there were good things and bad things.
The good things first, it was refreshing to read a book set in Mexico and about Mexican history. Since Mexico is one of the countries I would really like to visit in the future it would seem normal that I would have read some related books but aside from Octavio Paz I can't remember reading anything else on Mexico and especially not on the city of Merida. Maybe it's time to change that. It was also interesting that it was around archeological findings and Mayan mythology, at least it was novelty for me, and I liked the idea of someone getting a phone call from a friend asking to visit and then having to go on a hunt for clues to find the friend and what is happening.
My problem with the book was that I found the language very simplistic; there was no beauty in the dialogues or reflections, just a description of what was going on with vague attempts at humour. Also there were large chapters with information about Mayan history which I found interesting but seemed a bit out of place; they weren't fully integrated in the story.
Regarding the mystery itself, one of the villains was a surprise, and I liked the explanation to what was really going on. However I think there should have been more tension, more suspense than there actually was to make it a page turner, and the characters could also benefit from some character development. I didn't particularly like Lara, always complaining about the ex-husband, and couldn't really see what the men found attractive in her.
I see this as an interesting first effort, the historical research seemed good and I think the writing style can improve so I'll probably get to book 2 to see if there's some evolution.
Grade: 3.5/5 -
I am so excited to have discovered this series of archaeological mysteries by Lyn Hamilton.
In THE XIBALBA MURDERS, Lara McClintoch has just gotten divorced from Clive Swain who forced her to sell her beloved antique/design shop so he could make a grab for all she has. She decides to enroll in college to study the ancient Maya.
As her university break begins, Lara receives a mysterious call from an old friend who is an archaeologist in Mexico. He wants her to come help him find "what the rabbit writes". Upon arrival, she stays with friends she knew when her diplomat parents lived there with her when she was a teen.
After hearing a violent argument beneath her window and the professor does not show up, she uses a key to get into his office at the museum after hours. She has to crawl out a window onto the roof when an intruder comes into the office and finds a dead body on the roof.
An evil cop places her under house arrest at her friends' home and confiscates her passport. The professor is found dead in his office after being killed elsewhere and Lara begins sneaking out to try to solve the crimes. She worries when her hosts' college age son comes into the restaurant and robs it of an antiquity and she finds he is in a Maya uprising group.
Along the way, Lara faces danger and thinks she is falling in love with a man who turns out to be very dangerous. Who can she trust? Apparently no one. After she is attacked at her hosts' home, she runs away while being pursued by both police and killers.
One thing I loved in this story is how info on the ancient and modern Mayans is woven in. This is a thinking person's mystery series. If you like brainless trivial beach read/chick lit fluff, this might not be to your liking. -
Hm. Well, not terrific. This series has come highly recommended by several folk whose opinions more often than not coincide with mine. I will therefore have a look at the next in this series, but this first one is not impressive. The identity of the Bad Guy was obvious from the very first meeting; there is considerable foolish, ham-handed exposition (e.g.: our heroine, a grad student in MesoAmerican studies, has also lived in Merida in the past, yet we have a scene with an archaeologist explaining the sacred ball game to her as if she’d never heard of it before); also ham-handed foreshadowing: by p.72, I not only knew who would be confronting the valiant lass in the obligatory climactic scene, I knew where it would take place, as we are given a tour of a scary underground archaeological dig, complete with dark narrow tunnels and deep, water-filled pits. There is more plotting dumbness – our heroine is almost discovered searching somebody’s office, accidentally drops his diary during her escape, and it falls in such a way that two subsequent searches of the room do not reveal it and she is able to retrieve it herself later; and also a couple of English errors that an editor should have caught: describing a child’s drawing, the author says that the tree, the house and the people are all on the same scale when she clearly means they are all the same size – if they were all on the same scale, they’d look normal – and the everpopular “ex-patriot” instead of “expatriate”, argh.
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This is a good cozy mystery, although I lost interest here and there, which is why I gave it 3 stars. Lara McClintoch is a student of the Mayan culture and travels to Mexico at the request of her friend to help him in a mysterious search. Unfortunately he is discovered dead soon after her arrival, so not only is she looking for his killer, but she's also trying to figure out what he had discovered and why he needed her help. I thought the story got bogged down in some of the ancient culture and Mexican politics and economic problems, but the action picked up towards the middle and kept my interest to the end. The bad guy seemed obvious to me from the beginning and Lara never seemed to really have a lot of substance to her, so I couldn't really feel interested in her problems. However, finally at the end of the book she reveals a little more about herself, and I had more empathy for her at that time. I will probably read more in this series.
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Antiques and archaeology are not quite the same thing; however this intelligent and interesting mystery takes a Toronto antique shop owner with a love of ancient cultures and embroils her in ill deeds in Mexico.
I like the way that we are told a good deal of landscape, culture and history through the tale, and see different sides of life. There might be more climbing out of windows in the dark than seems realistic, but I've never been there so it may be accurate. This is the first in a series and I have read another couple of the books. Lara our heroine is constantly alone and asking others to help her with research, whether their specialties or on a computer. Although we don't see her do any jogging, yoga or other physical training, she does a lot of running and climbing. I think it would be more realistic if she did some kind of keep fit or martial arts, as she never pulls a muscle.
This is an unbiased review. -
This was a decent mystery chock full of interesting Maya history and culture. Things fell into place a bit too easily for our heroine and I had most of it figured out by the end - something I can rarely do when reading mysteries - but the historical aspect of it made it worth the read, although the whole Maya calendar bit got old pretty quickly. It was interesting but just too coincidental that the day never failed to bring exactly what it was meant to and that she seemed to have the calendar memorized - she never had consult anything to know exactly which day of the Maya year it was. If she had used the gimmick less often it wouldn't have been as tiresome. I'm not much of a series person, but I would read more of this series if the opportunity presented itself.
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I did not really care for the writing style of this book. There was too much of the mythical characters and that part really didn't make sense. I had to end up skimming those parts. I really wanted this series to be good, I was looking forward to reading the books set in all the different countries. However, it was not meant to be, I doubt I will read any more of these. I also figured out half of the mystery.
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This was boring and lacked any personality. I already have the second one (which is a bit better, according to the reviews), but I won't be rushing to read it.
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This was a great read and Hamilton did amazing work in integrating the archeological/Mayan aspects. I learned a lot, but without the sometimes agonizing attempts to educate the reader through pages of explanatory dialogue that plagues historical fiction. Lara McClintoch is a great character--both relatable in her life challenges (divorce, losing her business, etc) but also a bit of an armchair superhero sleuth, who isn't afraid to put her neck on the line in search of writing rabbits (read the book and that makes sense). Most of the story takes place in Mérida, Mexico, and Hamilton really makes the city come alive. Each chapter is named for a day of the Mayan calendar, but it isn't frivolous--McClintoch knows her stuff (and so does Hamilton). Portents and symbology abound, as do some good old-fashioned murders. While I am no expert in Mayan culture, I did fact check some of what Hamilton offered and it seems legit.
The author died of cancer in 2009, but she managed 11 in the series, and I can't wait to read them. -
This is an enjoyable mystery, with more intrigue than the typical cozy. There is a LOT of background on Mayan culture, tradition and myth, which is not all essential to the mystery, but is all interesting, especially since this is a culture I know almost nothing about.
