Curses! by Aaron Elkins - 3.5 stars

[Theresa]

It's a rainy January in Washington State, and Gideon and his wife are both struggling to be motivated to finish some work projects. Both feel a need for somewhere hot and sunny. Just as the thought forms, Gideon's phone rings and he's invited to a dig in the Yucatan where a skeleton has been found in a recent excavation of a Mayan temple and pyramid celebrating the Water God, Tlatoc. They hop on a plan and arrive the next day to the Mayalanda Luxury hotel at Chichun Ixta site, which is serving as the base for those involved in the excaation as it's only a short walk to the site. What also was found was a Mayan curse. One of the reasons Gideon is asked to join the excavation to consult is that this excavation is the reopening of the site for work after it was locked down by the Mexican government after a disastrous series of events 5 years early, in 1982, when Gideon was part of the crew. Things are happening that may relate back to then.

As soon as Gideon arrives, it looks like the curse is coming to life, progressively. Gideon's life is threatened, a murder does happen, and while not believing in curses, there is definitely evil afoot.

Elkins writes a really enjoyable series here, especially in painting the setting, the cultures, and the scientific side of things. In fact, I give this a 3.5 star rating rounded down because tehre were a few too many times in this particular entry in the series where the science drops were a tad much. Some of them were meant to be humorous (i.e. the discuss of the long boring titles to monographs) but for me others went on too long on technicalities. But the Manya culture and history revealed - 5 stars.

These books are very easy to read as standalones and in any order.