The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton

The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton

Lyn Hamilton wrote 11 novels featuring Lara McClintoch, the main character of The Xibalba Murders, spanning 2 decades until just before her death in 2009. Each book takes place in a new location and as Lara looks for interesting pieces to purchase and resell with her antiques business and invariably becomes enmeshed in a murder mystery. The Xibalba Murders deals with death, genocide, gun violence, murder, and colonization.

Lara McClintoch gets a call from her old friend Don Hernan Castillo, an expert in Mayan studies. He invites her to Mexico to help him with a project he is working on, knowing that she is an avid student of the Mayan culture herself. He gives her one clue to entice her to Mexico: "We seek what the rabbit writes." Having just divorced her husband and sold their joint antiques business, Lara already feels like she's at loose ends and decides to join Don Hernan in Mexico, but by the time she arrives, he is missing and found days later, murdered in his office. Now it is up to Lara to solve the mystery of who killed Don Hernan, figure out what he was working on (something he kept secret from everyone), and clear her own name. If she finds love or a priceless relic of vast historiological value, even better.

I enjoyed reading about the Mayan culture in this book, which is not one that I'm well versed in. What this book did well was inspire me to do some research of my own, particularly on the Mayan calendar and the architecture of Chichén Itzá. Other than that, The Xibalba Murders was underwhelming. The writing was okay but not great, the characters were not particularly well fleshed out, the mystery was intriguing at times but it certainly didn't keep me on the edge of my seat. The relationships in the book did not go deeper than surface level, and that includes the people that Lara considers a lifelong best friend. In fact, Lara starts sleeping with a hot, British archaeologist that she met about 20 seconds before (she's coming off of a failed marriage, I can't blame her for taking her chance) but decides that she can't really trust him, so does not tell him what she's learned about Don Hernan up to that point. Good for you, Lara! I think to myself. Literally the next business day, she's spilling her guts and all of Hernan's research to the same archaeologist that she does not trust. There were a lot of situations like that which I found particularly infuriating.

I'm giving The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton 3.5 stars out of 5. I enjoyed learning about the Mayan culture and it was a fun read as long as you didn't expect too much out of it, but I won't be following Lara McClintoch into any further shenanigans.

For more about Lyn Hamilton's work, see her website at https://www.lynhamiltonmysteries.com/

Pairs well with sopa de frijoles and knowing which Mayan day you were born. I was born on Kawak, which means I'm a good judge and predictor of the future. Nice to think about but I'm not sure how well that has played out in my life. You can convert your own birthday by going to this converter.