Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Teaser Tuesday 261: Curses!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!



This week’s teaser is from Curses! by Aaron Elkins, an anthropological mystery set in the Yucatan.


He came perilously close to slipping on the uneven stones, righted himself and some gawky flapping with his long arms, and continued coming down with more care. "My God," Gideon heard him murmur again. "Oh, dear Lord."

This, Gideon said to himself, is not going to be good news.

(Chapter 4)

~ * ~ * ~ * ~


He twisted farther away, but he knew he was frighteningly close to the end of the wall. Sightless, he grabbed at the pavement with his left hand to steady himself, but it wasn’t there; his arm dropped sickeningly down into nothing. He was at the very edge, sprawled on his belly, hanging over a sheer forty-foot drop to a ledge of stone.

(Chapter 11)



ABOUT THE BOOK:

Gideon [Oliver] is enlisted by his mentor to travel to the Yucatan Peninsula and inspect a skeleton in the reopened ruins of the archaeological dig at Tlaloc. Gideon had worked the dig five years earlier, when a colleague of dubious repute discovered a fabulously rare and valuable Mayan codex—and subsequently made off with it, to parts unknown.

But now an eerie new element has cast its spell over the dig. Shortly before Gideon’s arrival, a set of Mayan hieroglyphs was discovered by the scientific team. Once translated, they reveal a series of ancient curses that threaten to destroy all desecrators of the site.

The steamy jungles weigh down upon the band of eccentric anthropologists as one by one the curses materialize among their party. Gideon’s special talents for deduction are brought into play to decipher murderous mysteries of the present . . . of five years past . . . and those much more ancient.





6 comments:

Kathy Martin said...

This sounds really good. Very intense! My teaser this week comes from the latest in a science fiction series I adore - Dragon in Exile by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Happy reading!

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Sounds frightening...and like a book you can't put down. Thanks for sharing...and here's mine: “APRON STRINGS”

Sandra Nachlinger said...

Lots of tension in those Teasers! This sounds like a book that would keep me turning pages.
My Tuesday post features Nobody’s Cuter Than You.

Juli Rahel said...

There is nothing worse than walking towards the stairs and stepping into nothing because you miscalculated how far away it is. I can't imagine how much worse that would be if you're crawling in the dark! Thanks for sharing :) I hope you have a great week and that I see you at ABEA!
My Tuesday post
Juli @ Universe in Words

Alice Audrey said...

Not generally my thing, but you've got me interested.

Heather said...

Kathy: It did keep one turning the pages! ☺

Laurel-Rain: This is more of a cozy type mystery, so not that scary. ;-)

Sandy: Thanks, it certainly kept my attention. :-)

Juli: Definitely not much scarier, LOL. *G*

Alice: If nothing else, you'd probably enjoy the Yucatan setting in this one. ☺