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First, make sure that you don't mind a lot of blood and guts and extreme cruelty when you start to read this novel. The sun stopped, but the gods made it continue on its daily rounds as long as it was given its daily supply of blood with a steady procession of victims having their hearts cut out on high altars atop pyramids. Yaotl has seen his share of human sacrifices, understands the need for them, has assisted many times in the ceremonies, and was in training to become one of the blood-cutting priests himself before he fell from grace. He then sold himself into slavery and became the main slave of Lord Feathered in Black, a cousin of Montezuma. Simon Levack has written a clever mystery combining a cook's tour (note that although the sacrificial hearts are intended for the sun god, the rest of the bodies are deftly cut into choice pieces, flavored and cooked, and served as meals to the cream of the populace) of Aztec Mexico in 1517, with a modern type of mystery where Yaotl must find the answer to a puzzle for Montezuma or separately for Lord Feathered in Black, who is playing his own game. He cannot satisfy both, but if Yaotl fails either one, he risks ending up as dinner for the other. The story is unusual because we're dealing with a culture that's as different from our Greek-Roman heritage as a hotly-spiced tamale is from a cup of snow-chilled Falernian wine, notwithstanding the fact that there's more than just a soupcon of similarity between Yaotl and Lindsay Davis's street-wise Roman protagonist, Falco Yaotl is not as wise-cracking, as Falco, nor does Falco lead such a perilous life as Yaotl, but as we accompany him through the streets of Tenochtitlan, the waters of Lake Xochimilco, and the everyday life of the villages and houses of the Aztec rich and poor, we see that he knows his way, he's quite resourceful, and he has a lot of luck. That's one of the downsides of this otherwise excellent novel, the surprising role played by coincidence after the first quarter of the plot. Other readers might find the amount of back story to be a hindrance, but I can't imagine how this type of story could be told without a lot of massive asides into the past. You need a running commentary on Aztec history, beliefs, practices, taboos, economy, and other aspects of their strange-to-us life to understand what is happening (we're no longer in Western Civ, Dorothy). I don't recommend this book for lazy readers, but it's a choice read for those with inquiring minds, people who like to learn as they are entertained. And Levack, in spite of this being his first published novel, is a good writer with the ability to create suspense and instill a desire in readers to keep those pages turning. Others must have also thought so because this book was the winner of the CWA Debut Dagger award. It's a welcome change of pace and a most interesting plot.
Reviewed by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, November 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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