Shadow of the Lords
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
Mexico, 1517. The Aztec capital is awash with fear and rumors. A strange figure has been seen running through the streets. A being with the face of a snake, his body covered with glittering green plumage: Quetzalcoatl---the Feathered Serpent. Is it an omen? Or is it the god himself, come to warn of impending disaster?
Yaotl, the chief minister's slave, has more immediate matters to worry about than omens and portents. Engaged in a desperate search for his son, he's on the run from his vengeful master, the all-powerful Lord Feathered-in-Black. If the chief minister catches him, Yaotl can expect a grisly fate.
Attempting to escape his master's bloodthirsty warriors, Yaotl stumbles upon a dismembered, unrecognizable corpse. As he pieces together the clues to who the dead man was and how he died, Yaotl finds himself drawn into an affair of greed, jealousy, and lust among the ancient, secretive society of the feather workers, the Aztecs' foremost craftsmen. And, as he is to discover, the answers to those clues will provide the key to the search for his son.
But before he can solve the mystery, Yaotl will need his wits about him simply to stay alive---for Lord Feathered-in-Black and his henchmen are never far away....
"An exhilarating, fast-paced tale . . . plenty of plot, well-rounded characters, and some black humor to make this second book a delight."
---Historical Novels Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Levack's second 16th-century Aztec mystery (after 2005's impressive Demon of the Air) is another intellectual page-turner that will satisfy even those with no previous knowledge of the ancient Central American civilization. The novel picks up moments after its predecessor's dramatic conclusion. The complex and all-too-human Yaotl, a former priest, has just learned that he is a father and that his son is connected with a murder mystery he was probing at the request of Montezuma himself. As he tries to protect his son, Yaotl faces further challenges after he stumbles into a new inquiry involving a brutal killing and sightings of the dread god Quetzalcoatl that have driven the local population into near panic. The author matches impressive period research with tight plotting and the rare ability to make the inhabitants of a different world and time seem familiar.
