The Mayan Secrets: A Fargo Adventure, Book 5 Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00EIRADQ2 | Format: PDF
The Mayan Secrets: A Fargo Adventure, Book 5 Description
The outstanding new novel from the #1 New York Times - bestselling grand master of adventure.
Husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are in Mexico, when they come upon a remarkable discovery - the skeleton of a man clutching an ancient sealed pot, and within the pot, a Mayan book, larger than anyone has ever seen. The book contains astonishing information about the Mayans, about their cities, and about mankind itself. The secrets are so powerful that some people would do anything to possess them - as the Fargos are about to find out.
Before their adventure is done, many men and women will die for that book - and Sam and Remi may just be among them.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 10 hours and 9 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Penguin Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: September 3, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EIRADQ2
Of all the spin-offs from the exciting Dirk Pitt novels of the 80s and 90s, I have to say the Fargos are my favourite along with Mr Isaac Bell. The changing of co-authorship didn't help too much around the third novel but they've continued in a way that's (oddly) slightly endearing. The genuinely smarmy, but affectionate husband and wife team of Sam and Remi Fargo along with sidekick Selma (who always makes me think of Scooby-Doo) are an adventuring team who provide archaeological derring-do with a massive moral punch.
Ethical excavation should be their motto.
Not that they have much excavating to do - other than starting to dig their own jungle graves at one point - because a helpful earthquake measuring about 8.3 has diverted them away from shark tagging to aid the unfortunate populace of Tapulcha, Mexico who are cut off from aid and sitting in the now-rumbling shadow of the Tacana volcano. A rescue foray up the place with some medical colleagues - Christina and Maria - reveals a cave not seen for a thousand years containing the mummified remains of a Mayan leader and his precious sealed pot with an ancient Mayan Codex - only the fifth to be ever found. Unfortunately, a well-meaning but hot-headed Jose Sanchez tweets its existence to the world and, in particular, brings it to the attention of a beautifully arrogant femme fatale - Sarah Allersby. This lady is a young socialite, wannabe Discovery channel archaeologist, and fledgling mega-rich murderer. A lady with huge tracts of lands in Guatemala and a blind eye to the vast marijuana plantations that are on them.
Inevitably, she steals the Codex which turns out to be a convenient map of all Mayan religious and secular habitations. Sam and Remi are forced to hunt down a copy in Spain and the race is one to get to these places first.
Someone once wrote "There's nothing so bad as something that's not so bad." Having said that, "The Mayan Secrets" is not so bad. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the story but the Cussler-Perry hybrid misses the mark when it comes to characterization and plot development. Let me offer a few examples. I have read every installment of the Fargo Adventues, but I still don't know what Sam and Remi Fargo look like. However, I do know that Remi has auburn hair that she likes to wear in a ponytail. At one point in the story, Remi says "I could feel them staring at us." Sam replies "You could feel them staring at you, more likely. You should be used to that." (page 206) From that one tidbit I was led to believe that Remi Fargo is smoking hot, but I felt I needed more. Later in the story I found out that Selma is a middle-age woman (page 234), but that was it. Never mind Selma's two assistants, who might as well be nameless we know so little about them. Then there's the plot line. The first twelve or so chapters all begin with some variation of "Sam and Remi did..." Only then do readers get an idea of what's happening anywhere else in the story. Sam and Remi are married, but they are not in a relationship with each other. For a man that has a wife that looks the way Remi, the best Sam can do is kiss her on the cheek several times during the story. Maybe once in the story they kiss each other on the lips, but not deeply. Cussler-Perry gives us two mummified bodies that would seem to be major plot points, but they simply become red herrings. The second of those remains seemed to be a gunslinger of some type...very curious. In my opinion, a major missed opportunity occurred when Remi speaks Hungarian to her German shepherd. If you didn't read "The Tombs," you would not know why Zoltan understands her.
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