Skaar

Guided only by the words of her grandfather's journal, Lia will leave behind all that she has known to enter a world of startling beauty and unsuspected danger.

Central America at the turn of the twentieth century is a land of treasure hunters, banana barons, mercenaries and revolutionaries. Into this volatile mix, arrives headstrong Miss Cyrilia Hathaway determined to lead an archaeological expedition to the remote Mayan ruins of Copán. Having crossed half the globe from the narrow lanes of Oxfordshire, England to the shores of the Caribbean Sea, Lia Hathaway must navigate a country torn by revolution to reach the ruined city and decipher the secret her grandfather discovered there forty years earlier. But Lia is not the only one seeking her grandfather’s secret, and she soon finds her expedition threatened by a shadowy adversary and aided by a most unlikely ally.

A richly imagined novel of archaeology and adventure, Skaar takes the reader along on a journey from the back alleys of Belize Town through the lush islands of the Caribbean and into the verdant twilight of the Honduran jungle. Its memorable heroine and richly drawn cast of characters make Skaar a delightful discovery for lovers of mystery, travel and adventure.

"Rowland Reeve, a writer and archaeologist, has published a wonderfully old-fashioned rollicking tale of adventure. Channeling a bit of Robert Louis Stevenson and C.S. Forester, he has created a heroine in Cyrilia (Lia) Hathaway who is not unlike the intrepid Amelia Peabody conceived by Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz) and launched her on an almost picaresque quest for a secret hidden deep in the jungles of early 20th Century Honduras. Accompanying her on this journey of discovery are three equally captivating characters: Lt. Arthur William Rigby, a dashing, heroic, yet slightly dim-witted British soldier assigned to “protect” Lia on her expedition; Haskel, an ex-Pinkerton detective hired to organize her journey into the bush; and the mysterious and eponymous Skaar, hired to guide this little band to the ancient site of Copan, the capital of a major Mayan Classic period kingdom from the 5th to 9th centuries AD in western Honduras.

Orphaned at a very young age, Lia was reared by her paternal grandfather, Sir Cyril Hathaway, a long-serving member of the British diplomatic corps. In the mid-nineteenth century he had been posted to Belize Town in the crown colony of British Honduras. In 1859 he mounted a small expedition to the “lost” Mayan city of Copan, where he made a remarkable discovery alluded to in his journal. He intended to return to Copan to further unearth his discovery but political intrigues cut short his tour of duty in British Honduras and he returned to England. Shortly thereafter the orphaned Lia came to stay. His dedication to raising his granddaughter precluded his ever returning to Copan, but he instilled in her his love of adventure and travels to exotic lands. He taught her to ride, shoot and swim and her “school” was Sir Cyril’s vast library of books, manuscripts and maps.

Upon her grandfather’s death, Lia set out in 1903 for Central America to complete her grandfather’s exploration of Copan. With her three courageous comrades—although there are times when their courage and even their loyalty is put in question—Lia experiences a shipwreck, pirate attacks, revolutionaries, the schemes of antiquities collectors and American capitalists, and even the business ends of bayonets brandished by U.S. Marines as she threads her way to Copan and her destiny.

This is an exceedingly pleasing novel of high adventure created by Mr. Reeve. It is populated with heroic heroes and villainous villains and enough plot twists and turns to keep the reader happily engaged. He is also able to seamlessly work into the tale of Lia’s odyssey a great deal of archaeological history and a sense of the beauty and awesome natural forces of Central America."—Bill Greens, Archaeology in Fiction Book Reviews