This is Edward Curry’s second novel with the ancient Maya civilization at the heart of the plot. 2012 Maya End Date once again features the fortunes and challenges of Ryan Keshaw and Dr. Allie Lea Shelton. Maya chief Ahua and his wife Elena are also prominent in the story.

The Maya calendar seems to have become quite a hot topic of late, in fact this is the third novel In the past few weeks that has used December 21. 2012 as a backdrop.

All three have offered very different ideas, and all three have been most thought provoking. The Doomsday theorists view December 21/2012 as the ultimate day of reckoning, mankind will cease to be. The optimists view the date as significant and represents the dawn of a new age.

The Maya did not pick this date at random, they were a very advanced people particularly in the study of the celestial world. December 21, 2012 is the winter solstice, but it is a unique one due to the alignment of other aspects of heavenly bodies.

Ed Curry takes us into the very heart of Mesoamerica and spins his yarn like a spider web ensnaring the reader. He has a light chatty style of writing. It is a style I have seen before but somehow have never managed to pin down. I am a book reviewer not a book critic, but I hate it when I can’t stick a label on a style!

2012 Maya End Date actually picks up four years after Temple Of The Two Jaguars, the Smithsonian Maya experts together with the help of Chief Ahau have decoded the meaning behind the 13 murals that were found in the first book. These murals are the Maya equivalent if the Rossetta Stone, offing a unique glimpse into their science and lifestyle.

The Mexican government and the Smithsonian embark on an ambitious plan to bring attention to the finds by staging a festival in celebration. I think it would be fair to say that not everyone is in it for purely altruistic purposes, the Mexican government see it as a wonderful tourist trap bringing in substantial amounts of foreign currency. Even the Smithsonian sees it as an opportunity to solicit publicity and hopefully donations.

Ryan Keshaw and Dr. Allie Lea Shelton are invited along as special guests. It is with some trepidation that they agree to once more venture back to the Temple of the Two Jaguars, it is hardly a place that brings back fond memories.

Ryan has an uncanny ability to see trouble looming ahead, is it just his fertile imagination at work? As the days draw closer to the event so do the intensity of his dreams.

I will not give any spoilers in this review, but I will say that 2012 Maya End Date is a book that hurtles you along faster than a Japanese Bullet Train. Ryan and Allie Lea are once more thrust into great danger.

What I found interesting is that Ed Curry does not use villains in his plot, sure there are the occasional Bandito’s but they are really peripheral characters. Rather he uses psychological warfare on the reader.

I enjoyed 2012 Maya End Date, so in typical Book Reviewer style I guess I will now go and read his first novel Temple Of The Two Jaguars. While 2012 Maya End Date does stand up as a great read I suspect that reading Temple Of The Two Jaguars would add some additional insight.

You can order your copy of 2012 Maya End Date from Amazon, just use the link above.

Simon Barrett