A review by christopherborum
The Aztec Heresy by Paul Christopher

2.0

This book was a mess. I kept thinking there'd be some adventure regarding the Cortez Codex, which is set up as this mythical document that will lead to untold riches if anyone can find it.

But then Finn and her team find it with minimal effort, just a long dreary flight to Bimini, and not really any danger.

They end up in the Yucatan, almost always on the periphery of drug lords and half century old radioactive waste, mutated flora and fauna, etc. I honestly couldn't figure out what this story was supposed to be about.

It's passages like these that make me wonder if Signet even employs editors. Describing a jungle buggy that is used by the drug lord, the author calls it a "bastardized Suzuki Jeep". Jeeps (and it's capitalized, so he knows it's a brand name) are made currently by Chrysler, and throughout the brand's history have NEVER been made by Suzuki. In the same paragraph, he then says, "It was originally an old Jimmy 4x4...". Jimmys were made by GMC and have nothing to do with Jeeps or Suzukis. Maybe that's picking nits, but it's a simple thing to either know or look up, and if the author isn't willing or able to do that, then the editor should have. Dumb mistakes like that sour me on an entire book.

And finally, what ever happened to Harrison Noble?

Did he escape Guzman's camp, or was he still there when the Chinese shot Guzman and blew up the camp? I know the coda says he disappeared in the Yucatan, but that was a hanging thread that bothered me.