REVIEW: The Xibalba Murders

By Denise @ Life With No Plot on January 13, 2025 • ( 0 )

About the Book

Title: The Xibalba Murders

Author: Lyn Hamilton

Series: Lara McClintock Mysteries #1

Genre: Mystery

Pages: 290

Edition Read: Kindle eBook

Dates Read: December 6 – 10, 2024

Blurb: Lara McClintoch, her marriage ended and her antiques business sold, eagerly embarks on a trip to Mexico to help an old friend solve a mystery. On arrival, her friend puts off their meeting and then disappears. After Lara witnesses a brazen robbery of a valuable statue of the ancient Mayan civilization and stumbles on a corpse in a museum of antiquities, she becomes a police suspect. Afraid of the police and unsure whom to trust, Lara follows clues pointing to black marketeers and zealous revolutionaries. This dangerous trail takes her to remote archaeological ruins, lush jungles, and bustling streets filled with revelers. Lara engages in a thrilling battle of wits and courage to unmask a killer and stop a tomb-robber in the shadowy world of Xibalba, the Lords of Death.

Review

It’s funny. I never actively seek out mysteries to read, but when I do pick one up, I always enjoy it. I don’t know why I don’t just look for more mysteries. I found this one while I was looking for a book title starting with “X” for the A-to-Z Challenge last year. I knew nothing about this line of books or this author, but this was still a very nice, simple mystery that was really interesting to read.

Lara is an interesting character and I really enjoyed how she carried herself through this story/investigation, all the while mourning her good friend and mentor. She’s a very strong person. I also liked that the female protagonist was a bit older. So many books have teenagers saving the world – us older folks want to do brave stuff too, okay!

Because she is an archeologist, there is a ton of history sprinkled throughout the book and this was probably my favorite part about it. I loved the descriptions of art work, sculpture, artifacts, all going back to the old Mayan gods and culture. It was really interesting and made the whole book feel like a richer story because of it. It’s a fairly simple read, and the mystery is a bit predictable, but I still very much enjoyed it.

GoodReads rating: 4 stars