Date first published	7 November 2013
ISBN Number	0 718 17722 3
Page Count	384 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Treasure-hunting husband and wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are in Central America when they come upon a remarkable discovery - the skeleton of a man clutching an ancient sealed pot. Inside the pot is a well preserved Mayan book, larger than any previously found by archaeologists.

The book contains astonishing information about the Mayans, about their cities, and about mankind itself. The secrets are so pwoerful that some people would do anything to possess them - as the Fargos are about to find out.

Before their adventure is done, men and women will die for the riches contained in the ancient book - and it's just possible that Sam and Remi may be among them...

Review

The early part of the book is very good. We meet the Fargos, out exploring, but carrying out work unrelated to the adventure that unfolds. The finding of the Mayan shrine is pure accident, and from there the story starts to spiral, into one of stolen artifacts and drug smuggling.

The build up is great - to a final battle with the drug barron - but there then follows quite a let down, as a miraculus appearance of two helicopter gunships is used to defeat the drug barrons army. It appears that Sam was not CIA but in some sort of black ops unit, which he just happens to be able to call on to rescue him in the nick of time.

This could be regarded as a minor niggle, but if you are going to use a plot device such as this then it needs to have been hinted at somewhere in the back story.

The main villain Sarah Allesby, is a very American characture, of a British wealthy woman, However the men she employs Russell and Ruiz, who are more believable, hired guns that will do anything for money. Russell is a hot head whilst Ruiz is far more controlled, but they make a good team.

Whilst Sam and Remi leave the matter settled with the recovery of the Mayan book, the story continues after they have left the scene. Allesby, Russell and Ruize all escape to Britain, but unbeknown to them the drug Lord, wants revenge for the loss of his men, and all three end up dead. Russell and Ruize take revenge on Allesby for leaving them to rot in jail, whilst they are gunned down by an unknown assassin. Quite an unusual end, in this series where the bad guys usually end up in prison.

Overall I enjoyed the book, ther are some good twists and turns, double crossing and double dealing going on. It is only spoiled with the revelation that Sam is some sort of black Op spook with access to high powered military equipment. I hope that this won't be used too often to get them out of sticky situations. So the book loses half a mark for this. Otherwise it is worth spending your hard earned money on.

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