About the Book
Our story opens with Adam and the family plus Desiree "Dez" D'rq now back home in Barrows Bay. Dez and Edward are newly married, and their baby girl, Grainne, is now in the world. They are visited by an old friend of the family, a man that Edward has collaborated with many times, Dougie McKenzie the head of the Canadian CSIS-RCMP Joint Task Force. Dougie has news he knows Edward, Dez and Adam want to hear, but that news is wrapped and shrouded in the mystery surrounding the murders of two Americans in the Yucatan. Events seem to involve Carlos Alarcon's family members, who Edward knows, including Beto Alarcon, a small-time crook turned real estate empresario.
Much more than some family mysteries is involved, and the truth behind the involvement of forensic archeologist Edward St. James is slowly revealed. Adam and Rod have secrets about the upcoming assignment, as does Edward, but are they the same secrets? And what does each know that the other doesn't? But as the family readies to accept the assignment, what has been disclosed to the family that would draw them all to one spot to pursue the criminals and crimes arguably best left to law enforcement? Especially now as new baby Grainne is only months old? Dez, Adam and Edward are not initially inclined to leave the safe confines of Barrows Bay until the last item on the agenda is brought up by Dougie McKenzie.
Spiro Antiacos.
He has popped up in Mexico for some odd reason just as other events were playing out. Is he connected to any of them, and if so to who and why? Into the mix pops an archeologist Edward knows, Annie Akna Dzibi, and her husband FBI agent Taavi Kan. Taavi is after Spiro for personal and professional reasons, while Annie is on maternity leave after the recent birth of their daughter Eleri.Both are indigenous Mayans.
Each member of the group has a reason to be in Merida, though no one has been completely honest about why they are there.
In the stew of mystery are other players from the Russians and Chinese to the Cubans, each of whom is involved on the periphery of one piece of the puzzle or another.
Enter Rosa Flores, a Mexican Federale and Edward's former girlfriend, and her parents, retired cop Pedro Flores and retired mom anthropologist, Celia Flores. Rosa has been reassigned to assist Edward at his request.
The Mayans play a major role in the resolution of the mysteries, as their ancient practices and rites form the final pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that solves the mystery of the Lost City of Itza. The riches of that lost city are said to be unimaginable, and the discovery of where it is located is a top search many are willing to undertake if they only had a place to start.
Set against this backdrop are Adam and Rod, two fourteen year old boys who are key to events, but who are treated as adults sometimes, then relegated to child status at other times. Both feel disrespected by Edward and the adults, but it is Adam who cries foul the loudest. Without Adam's genius and Rod's help, summer projects are either not possible or is too dangerous.
How will this mystery end?
