Review Rating
With the October 2004 review, we began rating the books on the basis of one to four trowels;
one trowel= don’t bother, to four trowels= run right out to your local book store and buy the hard cover!
Golden Oldies - reviewing previously unreviewed books by previously reviewed “greatest hits” authors!
As we approach nearly twenty-five years of the MVAC reviews of archaeological fiction, I thought it would be fun to re-visit six of the authors whose works have been reviewed in the past. Three of these authors have sadly passed away since I first reviewed them (Margot Arnold, Lynn Hamilton, and Elizabeth Peters); two have “retired” their archaeologist protagonists, Gideon Oliver (Aaron Elkins), and Emma Fielding (Dana Cameron); and one, (Kate Ellis) continues to put DI Wesley Peterson and his friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, in harm’s way as solve contemporary crimes that have their roots in the distant past. While these authors have been reviewed previously, these books have not.
Human Sacrifice by Cindy Hull
Reviewed on: February 1, 2026
Mission Point Press: Traverse City, MI
2019 (PB)
Among the fifty scholars who gathered for the 10th annual Society for Mayanist Studies conference in Merida, Mexico, was a contingent of faculty from the host institution, Keane College of Westport, Michigan. Several Keane faculty were scheduled to deliver learned papers, but one in particular—ethnographer Claire Aguila Carson—was on a more melancholy mission. Although born in the American Midwest, Claire’s ancestral home was the Yucatan, and it was there, while studying the indigenous peoples of the peninsula, that she met, fell in love with and married Aaron. After more than thirty years of marriage, Aaron died of cancer and Claire had felt adrift since. She hoped a return to old familiar haunts and the company of old friends and colleagues would help her turn the page and help her re-capture her academic verve.
Meanwhile her colleague, Keane College Mayan Studies program director and conference program chair Brad Kingsford, has determined to make the best possible use of his time by essentially keeping the conference on schedule, interviewing two candidates for a vacancy in the multi-disciplinary Keane College program, and expediting the way for Dr. Eduardo Ramirez, noted Mayan art collector, director of the Museos Indigenas, and conference keynote speaker, to contribute valuable artifacts to the newly-established Keane College museum. But the scholarly gathering has barely begun when tragedy strikes at the opening evening sound and light show at the nearby majestic Uxmal Archaeological Site: Paul Sturgess, one of the two candidates for the Keane vacancy, plunges to his death from the Magician’s Pyramid. At first thought to have been a tragic accident, the position of Paul’s body and his missing backpack raise questions for the investigating police. Tanya Peterson, another member of the Keane Mayan Studies program, insists on delving into the death of Paul Sturgess, and within two days she is found dead at the conference reception hosted by Dr. Ramirez-- stabbed with a replica of a Mayan ceremonial dagger.
The mystery deepens as police question a wide swath of conference attendees but then narrow their focus to the members of the Keane College contingent, all of whom seem to have past secrets they wish to remain hidden. Claire, who has history with the police lead investigator, and two of her more senior colleagues, are brought into the inner circle of the investigation, but that involvement leads to another near tragedy on the Yucatan backroads.
This is a commendable initial effort by author Cindy Hull, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. While a great part of the novel’s 332 pages read like a police procedural, the most satisfying parts of this complex mystery reflect the author’s unquestionable academic expertise. Whether it is the erudite discussion and disagreement between Eduardo Ramirez and Claire’s fusty old department chair, George Banks, regarding the morality of collecting the artifacts of an indigenous people, or the colorful and poignant insights into the academic jealousies and foibles of Claire and her colleagues—Cindy Hull knows her subject matter! Equally compelling are the loving and evocative descriptions of Merida, Uxmal and the street life and local color of the small villages of rural Yucatan.
Three Trowels for Human Sacrifice.
