Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Xibalba Murders


(The) Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton is my X and 26th book for the A-Z challange.  It is also my 75th book of the year and fills my Read-A-Latte Challenge to read 75 books this year.

This book is an archaelogical mystery and involves the Mayan culture.  Lara McClintoch owned a successful shop in Toronto, Canada.  When she decided to divorce her husband, Clive Swain, half the proceeds from the sale would go to him and she would have to stay away from any business for a year.  So she decided to go back to school. Until one day, when Don Herman called her and she bought a ticket for Merida. She had made the same trip many times on business as Don Herman was her agent in Mexico.

Xibalba is the underworld, it is watery and Earth  is Imix, a water-lily monster, which could be a turtle or more likely a big crocodile lying in a pool of water with the earth on its back.  Each day has a special name and meaning in the mayan calendar.  The days are used as chapter titles and help the book go forward.

There is more than one murder in this book.  There is a theft and other mysterious things occur.  Unfortunately, Don Herman is one of the murder victims.  There are two handsome young male araeologists.  Lara's search for the murderer takes her through a museum and some nearby towns as well as the jungle and ancient ruins.

The descriptions of the towns and the people and food are wonderful.  There are some foods I might be willing to try if they were not spicy.  Lara's tastes seem to include hot peppers while mine do not.  Lara with the help of her neighbor, Alex, who does internet research for her and is minding her cat, learns that Don Herman may have been looking for a book.  His message included a rabbit who wrote.  We meet varous people along the way and get to follow Lara's journey.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in ancient cultures or who likes a good mystery.  I enjoyed reading this book.

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