this is the 253rd in my series of forgotten or seldom read books

The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton, Berkley Prime Crime, 1997, paperback, a Lara McClintoch archaeological mystery

“The beginning of this journey was a phone call from Dr. Heran Castillo Rivas, a scholarly gentleman whose enthusiasm and knowledge of the ancient civilizations of Mexico have inspired in me a lifelong interest in that part of the world.”

I’d had this and the next book in the series sitting around here for a long time. I had a vague feeling I’d read a review of it that wasn’t too positive, but I wasn’t sure and figured if I didn’t like it I could always stop and toss. However, though I had a few problems with it, I liked it pretty well.

I especially liked the main character and the setting. The book has a lot of background and information about Mayan culture which I found interesting. The writing was good, the plot was fine. The rest of the cast were adequately three dimensional.

Those problems: Lara McClintoch did some things that didn’t make sense; she put herself in jeopardy unnecessarily which I suspect was the author’s way to get past a kink in the storyline and move the story along. There were a couple of instances when she took pretty unreasonable risks. Well, she’s certainly not the first, nor will she be the last, to do that.

I figured out the identity of the “bad guy” a lot sooner than she did, and I think the clues were there for her. From that point on, for me, it was a matter of watching her figure out what I already was pretty sure of. Of course there could be a twist…

The ending was a little abrupt, but I have no qualms and in fact enjoyed the book. It’s background and characters are good enough for me to recommend it to a reader who might like an archeological mystery. I went ahead and read the next two in the series, and enjoyed them too.