The story begins with a bloody shoot-out on a ferry between the Yucatan Peninsula and Isla Mujeres, then moves to an idyllic, lazy vacation day with Jack and Josephine Phillips at their hotel. The ferry shoot-out seems a world away to Jack and Jo, who head to the mainland the following morning, befriending fellow American Stephen Potter on their way to Chichen Itza. They travel with Potter for a couple of days, until one morning's headlines claim Stephen Potter is someone else--a wanted drug dealer. Jack is too late to steal away with Jo, as she is missing on his return to their hotel, and Jack is soon arrested by the federales. Jack finds himself in the middle of a web of intrigue involving both the U.S. and Mexican governments and a dangerous gang of drug dealers and tomb robbers as he searches for the truth about his wife's disappearance. Ordinarily, books where the protagonist is an unwitting victim trapped in a series of events wherein everyone knows what's going on but him do not appeal to me. Jack, however, while at times numb and passive, does not live at the whim of others. He catches onto survival pretty fast, while working his way through the maze of intrigue around him, and I found myself rooting for Jack and the other good guys to beat the impossible odds. There are two stories unfolding; Jack on the run from the bad guys, and at the Washington end, Nelson Carlton unravels a series of murders directly related to the plight Jack finds himself in. Both are packed with action and intrigue that kept me turning the pages. I look forward to Brumfield's next book.
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