Customer Reviews

Tears of the Jaguar

Though basically an archaeological thriller embracing a significant historical find, a grave robbery and actions to retrieve stolen items there are numerous interconnected threads to `Tears of the Jaguar', plus there are numerous characters. Everything and everyone are essential to the novel's intriguing and intricate plot. Author A J Hartley skilfully interweaves discovery of artefacts in Mexico, investigation into witchcraft in Lancashire and mystery surrounding Royal jewellery from past to present times, and he combines these into a logically reasoned plot. In spite of its complexity the novel is well structured via short chapters for various elements running in tandem, yet with sufficient information to keep readers on track, and with injection of tension and suspense to keep the outcome hidden.

The main protagonist is Deborah Miller, a museum curator drafted as director for an archaeological investigation on an obscure Mayan site. She is somewhat out of her depth and is pitched into a tangle of killings involving not only the team of archaeological specialists but the CIA, MI5 and a Serbian arms dealer. From a diffident start in awe of her expert colleagues Deborah proves to be a competent sleuth and to be physically capable of tackling difficulties. Often when multiple murders occur they become implausible but A J Hartley makes these convincing and his various threads are firmly anchored to the main storyline. He builds a wonderful sense of being and he introduces real historical figures and facts to reinforce and make credible his fictional characters, and even when he relies on what may appear as fantasy he manages to explain this as genuine. The result is an imaginative and well crafted adventure, and in addition to being a roller-coaster read it is developed to provide cultural and historical insights. All this endorses `Tears of the Jaguar' as 5-star rating.

Excitement at discoveries in an excavated Mayan tomb - especially as certain items should not be there. Startling revelations will follow, at the cost of lives....

This being my only encounter with Mayan remains, I cannot compare with other such novels - but do admit to being gripped throughout. Holding everything together is the unlikeliest of heroines: curator Deborah Miller - six foot two, angular, awkward and, as many will learn, not to be underestimated.

The telling is good, characters well drawn, events veering off in unexpected directions. Admittedly parts are far-fetched. Not the witches, though - those details historically documented. CIA involvement rather stretches credibility, but not as much as that overblown, preposterous, blood-splattered finale (it immensely enjoyable nonetheless).

At the end of it all, two images may linger - they representing the core of the book. One is set four hundred years ago, a tragic figure trying desperately to atone; the other set in the present. I found both very moving.

Recommended to those seeking entertaining escapism. (So what if, occasionally, it goes over the top!)

An archaeological mystery thriller, Tears of the Jaguar should have kept me entertained into the wee small hours. Instead the tears were all down to sheer boredom.

The concept was good, but whilst a few of the characters were unlikeable, the rest were just plain bland. The main character was boarding on wet and whiny from the first few pages and didn't get any better as the book wore on.

Pacing was quite an issue too, the story trundled along at snails pace. I have to admit after the first 18 chapters (about 100 pages) I'd lost the will to care and ended up skipping large chunks. But even then the bits I'd missed did nothing to spark my interest and the pacing never seemed to improve any.

If you're a fan of the author you might like it, but if you're looking for a good story to get absorbed by, I'd look elsewhere.

This is quite a roller-coaster action-packed novel, full of intrigue, deceit, thousand year old Mayan tombs and
valuable treasures much closer to home. The story starts with Deborah Miller being asked to oversee an
archaeological dig in the Yucatan of which she feels out of her depth, but is obliged to go as it's the funders of
the museum who have asked her.
Whilst they are making plans with the archaeologists and surveyors at the Ek Balam dig site there is a massive rain
storm at night and part of the site is completely filled with rain water. Looking around the site for damage they
come upon hidden steps leading into the pyramid. Deborah Miller, Bowerdale the site surveyor and expert in all
things Mayan and two students make their way inside the tomb to find what they think are ancient Mayan treasures
and skeletons. They can't quite believe what they can see. The story goes on in an Indiana Jones/Da Vinci code
style adventure with murders, double-crossings, greed, deceit and some kindness right to the end. Part of the story
is set in Northern England and back again to America and Mexico.
This was an extremely enjoyable story which was quite hard to put down.The characters were quite believable and
plentiful and I would definitely recommend it.

Not the sort of book I would normally read but I found it just about ok a little bit on the boring side would not recommend this book for all those of you who like being totally enthralled.

I started reading this book a week ago and I am finding it difficult to pick up not put down! When does it get started!?

There is little quite so appealing as a well plotted treasure hunt. Deborah Miller, a museum curator is asked to lead a dig at Yucatan, Mexico which is surprising given her lack of field archaeological experience. Her group quickly make an important find, which excites quite a lot of attention. This soon develops into a treasure hunt with a far more important goal.

Mayhem and murder visit the dig at an early stage in the book. From that point clues are being researched and followed on both sides of the Atlantic as the search gets into its stride. Generally this is a well paced book, although I thought there was a certain loss of momentum when it shifted to England. However, things quickly got moving again.

The treasure hunt draws in a number of interested parties. Both the CIA and MI5 have a separate and distinct agenda and each have representatives on the ground. Additionally there is underworld involvement as well as another party whose motives are clearly sinister, but remain unknown until right at the end of the book. The various clues seem to slot, rather over conveniently into place and the disparate interested parties seem to manage to largely keep up with the action. The archaeological group themselves have divided and often unclear loyalties and some of them seem to behave in irrational and illogical ways. I thought this particularly applied to Alice, a young student. If all this seems unlikely, then I would confirm that it is. However, best to get on board and suspend disbelief as it is actually quite a good tale.

The climax of this story is complicated as it involves all the interested parties who collide in a bloody crescendo. This could well have deteriorated into a confusing farce, but to his credit, the author does manage to keep it all together and flowing and comprehensible. Overall I found this quite an enjoyable read.

Although I was misled by the title, I was engrossed with the story unfolding of the search for a new tomb around the area of Tutem Kamun's. Interesting to find a lady boffin in charge for once. She showed a commonsensce for the most part not commonly present in stories of women in charge. However for me the story seemed to rewind a couple of times and for a while I found my interest flagging. However it sharpened up and continued at a good gripping pace to the end.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this book, as from the description it ticked all "my boxes".
However, in parts I found it plodding and I struggled to finish it - despite the "clever" plot (somewhat too clever) it just didn't grip me. In addition, I found most of the characters implausible.

Great story. Combining archaeology, espionage, and British royal family connections. The tale expands and expands and kept me involved so I had to keep going back to see what happened next. A great read!