Maya Sacrifice

... artfully intertwines ancient Maya rites with modern-day Mrida in a cliff-hanger as sensuous as the tropical nights of Mexico's Yucatan. ~M. Kehoe

This is the most fun I have had with a book about a place I live and things I know; Grant makes it fresh! ~ L.G. Dallin

Sad, tender, funny, suspenseful and informative; a page turner. ~ J. Corneal


Spradling takes you from the ancient Maya city of Uxcob to an archaeological dig in Guatemala and modern day Mrida, Mexico; from a house boat in Key West, to a mansion in Cambridge, to Chichn Itza and a restored hacienda. Venus will not rise in the evening sky, the sun will not rise in the morning nor will the rains come - unless a high priest sacrifices the youth he loves as his own son. A thousand years later, near a sacred cenote, the ancient Maya vessel recounting the sacrifice is stolen. Seventy-six years later, the nephew of the thief drowns in the cenote.


When Quincy Bruster, a wealthy poet-librettist, learns of this death, he calls his friend David Ward for help. They discover that the mansion in Massachusetts, the house boat in Florida and the home of the murdered man have all been targets of break-ins. Hackles of suspicion are raised and the unlikely pair of amateur detectives travels to Mexico to bring the murdered man's body home. In Mrida, entangled in bureaucracy, Quincy and David encounter drug dealers, US Agents, vendors of contraband pre-Columbian artifacts, and the Mrida gay life.