Synopsis
Aztecs and Aztec treasure in Arizona? Preposterous say the experts and historians . . . until archeology professor Sam Owens proves them wrong. The dreams of Carlos Grijalva, a senior shaman of the Tohono O’odham tribe, and Sam’s grandfather, and an obscure journal penned by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, lead Sam to an archeological dig on sacred tribal lands. Sam finds evidence of the slaughter of an Aztec village by Coronado’s conquistadores in the dig, and a cave where Coronado and his Spanish soldiers cached the treasure but never came back for it.Looters get to the treasure before Sam and his team can. Outraged, Sam traces the treasure to a warehouse in Tucson owned by an unscrupulous art broker. Thwarted in his attempt to locate the treasure, Sam turns to the FBI who search the warehouse and find the art broker and two of his henchmen murdered in spectacular fashion. They have been sacrificed in a traditional Aztec ceremony. Through Carlos’s dreams, Sam learns that a wrathful Aztec god of war and sacrifice, Huitzilopochtl, has, through an Aztec talisman, co-opted another henchman and forces the criminal to do his bidding and endows him with unbelievable strength and speed. Huitzilopochtl, bent on vengeance against all those who have desecrated the treasure, adds Sam and Carlos to his list as interlopers trying to stop him and recover the treasure.As the body count rises, Sam and Carlos are the only ones who can locate Huitzilopochtl’s henchman. Together, first with the FBI then the Tucson Police Department, they make attempt after attempt to apprehend the killer until he turns the tables and prey becomes the predator.
About the Author
Terry L. Shaffer grew up near Oregon City, about twenty miles south of Portland, Oregon. He graduated from Oregon City High School and Clackamas Community College before moving on to Portland State University, majoring in Political Science. Between high school and college, Terry spent four years in the United States Navy, and was assigned duty stations in Long Beach, California, and Naval Intelligence billets in Washington, D.C. and Alameda, California, from where he sailed to the Western Pacific aboard an aircraft carrier and earned both the Vietnam Service Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. During his college days at Portland State, Terry joined the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department where he was assigned a variety of positions including patrol, detectives and narcotics. He retired in 2000 after twenty-five years' service. After writing thousands of pages of police reports and search warrant affidavits, he likes to say that he has twenty-five years' experience writing in the true crime genre. Terry began his writing career in fiction shortly before he retired and has been at it ever since. He lives full time in his motorhome and divides his time between his home in Colton, Oregon, and various locations in the American Southwest where he spends his time writing and exploring. Terry enjoys off-roading, photography, reading and, of course, writing.
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