New Mexico Books

I stumbled upon Steven Havill's books by perusing Amazon's amazing resources. Though I write books for young readers (www.grahamsalisbury.com), I read mysteries for R&R, and am always thrilled when I discover great new (to me) writers. Steven Havill is the best of the best, in my opinion. His Posadas County series is as comfortable as a snapping fire in January. What makes it great is the chracterization. Bill Gastner and Estelle Reyes Guzman are endearing in every way, making Steven Havill one of my all-time favorite authors. The greatest mystery of all is why Steven Havill is not as widely loved as such fine authors as James Lee Burke, or Tony Hillerman. He's every bit as superb as they are. Try a Posadas County Mystery. You'll love it. And want more. Promise.

Posedas County is a wide-open range between New Mexico and the Mexican border and for the most part it is a quiet place. There are some areas that are patrolled rarely because there is nothing there. One day a pilot flies over the area and sees what she thinks is a body. She returns to base and the local authorities are on the scene almost immediately. A man is lying in the dirt, his faced so smashed in that they can't obtain dental plates.

Now that Bill Gastner is retired and the newly elected sheriff Robert Torrez is in Virginia taking a law enforcement course, the case is headed up by Under Sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman. Even with her ailing and aging mother and her son down with the flu, Estelle copes with the investigation just fine until they find a second body buried in a shallow grave located a few miles near the first. Estelle thinks the two deaths are tied to together and Eurelio Scener, a person who acts like he knows more than he is telling, might have some answers but he has disappeared, perhaps involuntarily.

Anyone who likes to see an investigation played out from the beginning to the end will definitely like SCAVENGERS, a police procedural that has heart. Watching the Under Sheriff balance her home life with her work gives the audience an appreciation for the police performing duties that sometimes can be at the expense of their own families. Steven F. Havill continues to write excellent crime thrillers as his series keeps evolving with a true time line.

Harriet Klausner

Billed on the front cover as "A Posadas County Mystery" this reader was immediately alerted that after nine Undersheriff Gastner novels, this was not the tenth. It has been a great run and while I was hoping for a tenth, I expected due to the way the character has developed that there would not be a tenth. Unfortunately, my expectation proved correct, but while different from the Gastner series, this book still retains the flavor and color of the previous novels. However, since it is not Gastner it does take some adjustment to get used to the new style and tone of the series.

As the book opens, Gastner has been regulated to the sidelines in his role as Livestock Inspector. While he appears briefly a couple of times, the main action involves Estelle Reyes-Guzman. Long a fixture of the series she is now front and center and has her hands full. Along with her mother and her failing health, she has children who currently have the flu bug and her husband, a local doctor. Her boss, the newly elected Sheriff Bobby Torrez, is off at Quantico taking a course. As Undersheriff, she is in charge with all the usual problems that brings in running a department and then the bodies start showing up.

The first is found out on the prairie and has had half of his head blown off. The lower part of his face is shattered and according to the corner, he thinks it happened after the man was killed by the headshot. While the body is clothed, there are no personal effects and thanks to the weather and the assorted wildlife, roughly three weeks after the person was killed, there is not much to identify. As they start to work the case, within a couple of days, a second body is found. Certain clues with that body lead Estelle to believe that the bodies were killed by the same killer or killers and the hunt begins.

There are several secondary stories as well, but to explain them would violate the golden rule of a book review-don't reveal too much. Especially for those new to the series, the explanation of several of the secondary stories would render the reading of those books all but pointless.

While this is not a Gastner book, it does come awfully close. The stark beauty of Posadas County comes through once again along with all the colorful characters that make this imaginary piece of New Mexico landscape home. Fortunately, while the author did move Gastner to the sidelines, he wisely did not change the other characters that populate his books. So, while somewhat different, there is enough of the earlier books in this one to make it work once again.

It was with some trepidation that I started reading Steven Havill's latest book, SCAVENGERS, knowing that it was the start of a new direction in one of my favorite series. Bill Gastner has retired as Undersheriff of Posadas County, and Estelle Reyes-Guzman, his young protegee, is taking over. Havill is about as good at bringing the small world of a Southern New Mexico town to life as anyone could be. My fears were soon set to rest as I was reassured that he can also write well and convincingly from the point of view of a female, and a Latina at that. SCAVENGERS is just as sound in its police work, real in its evocation of the desert, and touching in its portrait of one busy woman in a small town. The U.S.-Mexico Border has many facets, but this series realistically portrays one of them, where the mixing of cultures is constant and taken for granted. A sound detective story in an endlessly fascinating setting.

This is a beautiful book! I am designing a garden in Australia, this has given me so many ideas, from plant selection, colours, points of view and interest. Incorporating modern art and traditional building ideas. I hope you enjoy this too!

Santa Fe is a pretty tough place to garden. At 7,000 feet, the growing season is short, winds are high, and a five-year drought has made watering your garden politically incorrect.

Nevertheless, serious gardeners persevere, and some of the better results are documented here. It helps to be rich, to have a private well, to have a gardener -- best if you have all three. The color photo reproductions here are simply splendid. The text ranges from OK to pretty good (but who buys flower-porn for the text?) Recommended for gardening and Santa Fe fans, who will surely drool over the lovely gardens, homes and art so beautifully portrayed here.

Happy gardening,
Peter D. Tillman
Santa Fe

The photographs, in The Secret Gardens of Santa Fe, offer a glympse of a very special place in the western states. Sydney Leblanc does a fine--brief--job descibing the history of Santa Fe, and the reasons the gardens of this unique area do so well. Charles Mann has the touch when it comes to photography. He captures the mystery, the spectacular colors and design, and the fabulous art that adorns many of the gardens. A terrific book that makes one want to visit New Mexico, and see for one's self the magic of the high desert.

This is a beautiful book for artists and gardeners. Wonderful color combinations in landscapes & hardscapes, all accented with inspiring art pieces. Good text but...the photos say it all! (No offense to the author, I know writing is hard work.)

This bilingual collection offers a superb selection of poetry from all of Gabriela Mistral's volumes. Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957)was the first Nobel Laureate from Latin America, teacher to Pablo Neruda, forerunner of writers such as Garcia Marquez and Rigoberta Menchu. Her work is hardly known in the United States in part because Mistral was not (unlike these other, better-known writers) identified with any particular political platform. She was always, first and last, a writer and a teacher...and incidentally one of Latin America's first celebrities, a public intellectual in every sense of the word. This collection draws from Gabriela Mistral's poetry alone (excerpted from five volumes; short selections of Mistral's poetic prose have been ably translated by Stephen Tapscott, published by the U of Texas, while the hundreds of journalistic pieces that Mistral wrote and circulated all over the Spanish-speaking world are still unknown to US readers).

The editorial standards in this text are very high. Pages have been laid out so that it is easy to consult the corresponding lines in Spanish and English. While LeGuin states in the introduction that she has little prior experience translating from Spanish to English, she makes clear in her introduction that she worked on this project for years, aided by associates fluent in both languages, and her motivation throughout was the desire to bring this extraordinary, brilliant, hard-to-classify poet's work to English language readers. LeGuin has succeeded admirably. The translations are close to the feeling of the Spanish, yet they avoid wooden literalism.

At all moments LeGuin opts to communicate the mood of the poem, and her choices of poems to translate is clearly dictated by a combination of elements. She chooses, first, what can be most readily translated - she prefers the narrative poems over most of the "songs" (cradle songs and rounds) since the rhymes and rhythms of latter are difficult to convey. Also the book selects more or less equally from the volumes of poetry that Mistral produced over her lifetime, so that we get an excellent overview of this poet's development. Finally, the translator has worked with poems that are among the poet's most intellectually complex works, ones that show the poet's utopian vision for the Americas, her unique feminism, her fascination with landscape and her travels all over the world.

Another fantastic poet pushed to the chest of oblivion of women's achievements, in spite of her Nobel Price of Literature. Touching and profound stories of innocence, longing for one's roots, lost loves, and nature's beauty. The Spanish original poems are so rythmic and endearing, and yet, the excellent English version maintains the purity of its message. A book worth reading and re-reading.

This book gives you great insight about the amazing writer Gabriela Mistral. I wish more translations were available.

A simply outstanding addition to any personal or academic poetry collection, Selected Poems Of Gabriela Mistral is an extensive anthology of poetry by Gabriela Mistral who is the first Latin American writer to earn the Nobel Prize in literature. These free-verse poems are presented side-by-side in their original Spanish and expertly translated into English by Ursula K. Le Guin. Impressionable imagery and powerful, sweeping themes of the human condition mark this truly exceptional collection as highly recommended and memorable reading. Evening: In this sweetness I feel/my heart melt like wax./In my veins runs/not wine, but slow oil,/and I feel my life slipping away/still and soft as a gazelle.

What I like best about this collection is that the author (or editor, really) tells you a little bit about the people who tell the stories. He also includes the original Quechua, which is an interesting touch even if I can't read it. At any rate, if you enjoy fairy tales, and are interested in hearing them from other cultures (there are a few parallels to the traditional Brothers Grimm in this book), this is a good book to buy. If you aren't interested in fairy tales, this is a good book to change your mind.

An excellent collection of stories -- not merely in the presentation of a different set of stories than those which reach the common awareness, but also in the insights it gives to the shape of the Quechua culture and people. It is not presented as an explication of the way these people live, the way the thoughts go, but the stories show that shape, show that means, bring the world alive in a way both subtle and profound.

The stories are presented both in the Quechua language and in English translation, and it is possible to see the shape and patterns of the language with careful text comparison; it makes it worth considering learning the Quechua tongue to pick out the nuances which are inevitably lost in translation.

An enchanting book! Here is a unique opportunity to read stories never before written down, much less translated. The author was told them in the original language in the high Andes by Quecua storytellers. Now he has translated them into English, and in She-Calf and Other Quechua Folk Tales we find, opposite each translated page, a page printed in the original Quechuan language. Fascinating! Johnny Payne further enriches our experience by sharing the similarities that he observed between these stories and stories with which we are already familiar. Included as well are wonderful background stories of experiences and people he encountered in the story-gathering process. For those interested in stories, folk tales, oral tradition, antropology, history, language, travel... This is not only a must-read, but a must-own. It's a keeper!

This is a marvelous collection of Quechua folktales, told by various Quechua speakers to anthropologist Johnny Payne. These are short and "catchy" tales printed in English with the Quechua version on the facing page. This gives you a chance to get acquainted with the sentence structure of the Quechua language which I found very helpful. The author also shares interesting insights into the people who tell the tales. I love to travel in Peru and I am going to pass this book on to a Quechua friend who will surely enjoy it as much as I did. If you're interested in the cultures of the Andes, or if you plan to travel there, don't miss this book! .

Book is in excellent, new condition. Have not yet read it, but am a fan of the Posadas County mysteries.

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS is a fine addition to Havill's excellent Posadas County series. While it certainly can be enjoyed on its own, readers who seek out the other novels will be amply rewarded, especially if they read them in order of publication. The richness of character and setting builds throughout the series. I eagerly await more from this author.

I have read each and every one of Steven Havill's books in the Posadas County series, and will read every one he publishes in the future. They are very comforting, with stories that not only surround a mystery or two, but also the lives of the continuing characters. I've gotten to know these people. They are like old friends, and I love reading about them. Steven Havill is one of the most under-recognized authors I know of, a secret for those who love good books and seek them out. Thanks to Amazon.com, I will never miss out on any of Havill's work.

On Christmas Eve in Posadas, New Mexico, Chief of Police Eduardo Martinez suffers a heart attack while confronting car thieves in a motel parking lot; the stories from the two witnesses seem off kilter. The next morning Sheriff Robert Torrez still in recovery from on the job injuries suffers from what appears to be a pulmonary embolism. That afternoon the fiancé of one of his deputies is murdered. Finally that evening someone viciously assaults former sheriff Bill Gastner who is brutally attacked that night.

Under-sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is left in charge to learn who brutally attacked her mentor Gastner, killed the fiancée, and to capture the car thieves. At the same time she feels overwhelmed and her spouse feels the same way as a doctor at the hospital with an abundance of law enforcement officials filling the beds albeit Robert's is in Albuquerque.

In her latest police procedural Estelle feels overwhelmed with the recent medical track record of law enforcement as she and her shrinking staff struggle with a difficult caseload including murder, car jacking, and keeping score of how everyone is doing. She also has some issues at home, but that quickly takes a back seat to police matters. STATUE OF LIMITATIONS is a fabulous police thriller that fans of the series will immensely enjoy and newcomers will seek Steven F. Havill's résumé.

Harriet Klausner

Walter Noble Burns looked up Wyatt Earp with a view toward writing a story about him, as he had about Billy the Kid. His Billy the Kid helped establish once and for all the legendary status of the Kid. Wyatt Earp reported Burn's first visit to his friend, movie star, Wm. S. Hart, saying he was happily convinced Wyatt would allow him to do his story.

Unfortunately, for both Burns and Earp, Wyatt's friend John H. Flood Jr. had just written Wyatt's story, which was being circulated to publishers with the help of Wm. S. Hart. More unfortunately was that Earp loyally declined Burn's offer out of regard for Flood. The rub there turned out to be that Flood obviously couldn't write for beans. (Ask me. I found, bought and published his work after historians had sought for years this rare document, all copies of which had dropped out of sight.) As one editor said of Flood's work, it was "stilted and florid and diffuse." That may have been an understatement.

In any case, shifty Burns, despite what others have more kindly said about the sequel, tricked Wyatt into thinking he would instead do a book on Wyatt's intimate, Doc Holliday. And under that pretext he got a lot out of Wyatt, and used it to do a book that Wyatt finally concluded, was more about him than Doc. In fact when it occurred to him that he'd been tricked out of what amounted to the most interesting part of his life story he considered suing Burns. His friend Hart encouraged him, and thought he'd probably win big time. But suits cost time and money just as they do today. Moreover, Wyatt was old and tired. So Burns got away with his trickery, and brought out one of the most interesting, and accurate, books on what had gone on during what could be called the Earp, Behan, Clanton, McLaury, Cowboy Gang Feud. Behan was the crooked sheriff in spades. Burns did not learn that beneath much of the violence at Tombstone lay the fact that Wyatt had swiped the sheriff's cute, young, gal, Josephine Sarah Marcus. (Who later became his third and last wife, at least by common-law.) SEE THE STORY OF HER LIFE WITH WYATT ON AMAZON: "I MARRIED WYATT EARP."

Burns success in portraying things as they were was based on the fact that he found many of the participants still living, just as he had in the case of Billy the Kid. Burns was, however, basically a tenderfoot. For example, while researching Wyatt, an idea for another book occurred to him to cover the shenanigans of the many colorful old timers out in Cochise County, and he proposed to have the father of my old friend Ben Sanders act as his oracle and guide in seeking out old scoundrels. Bill Sanders reaction was: "You must be joking. These people are my neighbors!" If the implication isn't obvious to law professors from back East and that sort, he meant he'd have to move out if he blew the whistle.

In any case, this is a book well worth reading. It's author ended a colorful career shortly after the book came out, by dying quite young. Pity.

There is less fiction here than modern writers, who are shot in the pants with debunking, would like us to believe. Burns knew the foremost guide to writing such books was "stick to the facts, till you run out of them, and only make up as much as you have to in order to eat regularly." Editorial ethics then and now were much the same. In any case, Burns was not "stilted and florid and diffuse."

Since Flood's Ms. was not saleable, when Stuart Lake came along a few years later he took it over and made it that way. And Lake's so-called biography of Wyatt is a lot more truth than fiction. Read it, too: WYATT EARP: FRONTIER MARSHAL.

Burns was the first of the big name writers that started Wyatt Earp on the trail to fame and eventualy six-shooter Sainthood. I have a notion Wyatt would have liked the money in it, but not necessarily the fuss and bother of meeting celebrity seekers.

One of the editorial reviews above says that this book is "a mixture of fact and fiction." It seems to me that it is no more so than modern works on the topic and perhaps may be more accurate.

Written less than 50 years after the primary events that made the town famous, and while some of the people who participated in them were still alive, Burns crafts a portrait not just of those seminal events but a general history of the town from its inception to what had become of it in the 1920's.

Many other works about the Earps and their opponents tend either to lionize or demonize Wyatt Earp. Burns takes a more balanced view of both sides in the conflict, exploring their shortcomings and their qualities. Modern writers on the subject could take a lesson from him.

I read somewhere that more movies have been made about Wyatt Earp than all the U.S. presidents combined! There's something about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral that touches the mainspring of American imagination. Tombstone is the book that made Wyatt Earp famous and shaped forever our perception of him. I read Tombstone first when I was in high school back in the 1950s and I've since dipped into it countless times. Some might object to the author's purple prose and made-up dialogue and newer scholarly studies of the Earps and Tombstone may be more accurate and balanced. But Burns drew his material from interviews with old-timers and Tombstone newspapers and I'm confident that he comes about as close to fact as you can get. This is a magical tale and nobody could tell it any better than Burns.

Smallchief

tombstone the Iliad of the Southwest was a very informative book that keep me entertained as well as learning about the history of the people that shaped the southwest.I was very impressed how the author was able to interview many of the characters or speak to people that lived through that era.The book being writted in 1927 really brought out alot of history that would otherwise be lost.

Former District Attorney Luna Cruz, who left Crater County in disgrace after a humiliating recall vote, is given a second chance when she comes to the aid of legal secretary Jen Song, who is accused of killing her boss. Luna soon learns there is more to this case - and Jen than meets the eye.

Volcano Verdict takes you on a fast paced, action packed ride into the dark side of the law, with crooked cops, corrupt lawyers and a fallen heroine, trying to redeem herself. She is tempted by easy money, promises of power and death threats at every turn.

Gary A Wilson
Author -The Triangle & Sake of Time
Founder - The Independent Writer's Network

Edward Hobbs was an attorney, who was about to be disbarred for
transporting illegal drugs from across the border into America.
He pays a price of one-million dollars for freedom, but never realized
that wasn't enough. He was the boss of Jen Song, a legal secretary,
who was accused of killing him, and leaving his body on top of an
Albuquerque volcano. The fireworks were about to begin in Albuquerque
at the same time Jen falls, and cuts her hand on a sharp edge of
volcanic rock. The blood from her hand drips on the dead body of
Edward Hobbs, as she stares at the strangle marks on his neck, while
anticipating to make her first phone call. Jen becomes hysterical,
realizing that her dyslexia and Attention Deficit hyperactivity
Disorder were minor problems as compared to facing the gruesome
murder of her boss. During the impending investigation of Edward Hobbs,
former prosecutor Luna Cruz defends her only client, and friend,
Jen Song. The nightmare begins for Luna, while she uncovers a
conspiracy, involving lawyers and their connection to transporting
illegal drugs from across the border. The author creates a legal
thriller that becomes a masterpiece from his expertise in criminal
law through experience, combined with knowledge of the Southwest
detention centers. Jonathan Miller pulls no punches, while describing
the horror of a career in which he lives, and speaks pure truth as he
tells the story through reality. His unique background, keen sense of
humor, and detailed description of crime through the eyes of an insider,
makes quite an interesting read. There's never a dull moment, from the
beginning of an investigation of a brutal murder to the verdict. The
journey for Luna Cruz from Texas to Mexico adds more drama with a
twist and surprises, while she desperately attempts to put the
mysterious puzzle together, but the pieces don't fit. The dialogue
in this story is rich in color. The strange characters draw a picture of the Southwest detention centers, and
what goes on behind closed doors. A home for prisoners where there is
no mercy, whether your guilty, or possibly innocent. I would recommend
this book to all mystery lovers, who enjoy chilling stories that are
packed with drama. "Volcano Verdict" is as witty as "My Cousin Vinny."
Suspense blossoms like a flower throughout this thriller, as good as
it was in "Presumed Innocent." Jonathan Miller manages to light-up
the story, like fireworks on the fourth of July, and the volcano does
erupt!

Geri Ahearn, A.I.O.M.
Author of 6 books
Author Geri Ahearn, INC

I experienced such a dichotomy reading this book I scarcely know where to begin. As I wrestled with whether to give this review three or four stars I considered the pros and the cons of Jonathan Miller's well-written legal thriller, VOLCANO VERDICT.

Pros: Miller's writing flows fluidly and easily; even better, his writing style reflects a great deal of wit and a keen sense of humor. This makes for a very fun read. Miller is a criminal attorney, and his expertise comes through time after time, whether his characters attend hearings or file motions or issue subpoenas. And it's readily apparent Miller very much enjoys and appreciates Albuquerque and the Land of Enchantment.

Cons: There are numerous typos and other errors; this book is in dire need of a competent editor (not so cool, Cool Publishing). Some of the scenes are confusing, whether it be character placement or point of view. The book's protagonists, attorney Luna Cruz and her sidekick, Jen Song, sometimes say and do very masculine things (which points out the obvious; the author is a male). In the book's climactic scene, Luna doesn't resolve her own conflict--extenuating circumstances resolve it for her. And finally, there were a couple of other issues as the story concluded that really bugged me.

Miller has terrific talent; I look forward to reading his next book. VOLCANO VERDICT is a fun ride, warts or no warts.
--D. Mikels, Author, Walk-On

Knocked my socks off - a super story, packed with surprises and twists - and, because the legal angle ran surreptitiously in the background, it didn't labour or get bogged down.

Forget the Grisham thing - Jonathan Miller has placed himself as a serious rival to Harlan Coben.

Great stuff, looking forward to picking up my next one.

I began reading this wonderful book the day I brought it home and was so excited by it that I finished it the very next day. I love it, and in so many dimensions. I think it is wonderfully evocative of Darwin's close attention to the wide range of natural phenomenon which he encountered and his willingness to put it all together in such an innovative way - but only when nature thrust itself into his vision (thus, the ingenious use of clues from Rosie, Darwin's imaginary beetle friend). In my passion for all things Galapagos (I have been there more than once), I read the Voyage of the Beagle a couple of years ago, and this book reminded me vividly of some of the most fascinating and memorable parts of his voyage. I also love the book because I have an interest in writing for children, and appreciate how this rich and scientifically sound text makes the concepts of evolution so very approachable and inviting to this audience.

I think there is a paucity of books for children related to the Galapagos and Darwin and, given the increasing number of tourists with children going to the islands, I think this book should be recommended reading for families headed for Ecuador.

We received this book around Thanksgiving and cannot stop reading it! My son's interest in science has only increased since reading this book and we both adore the illustrations. I hope for more young adult literature from this author!

Traveling the globe with Charles Darwin and his beetle companion Rosie, the reader joins them in an adventure that evokes wonder and curiosity. The friendly narrative and vibrant illustrations guide us along a rich educational experience. As we become detectives and join Darwin in his search for clues we also learn about geography, the animal world, history, and finally the theory of natural selection. This refreshing book is a must for all young people and adults curious about the mysteries of life!

This is an engaging story of the incredible voyage of Charles Darwin that is both adventure story and a fresh look at the world around us. At first blush it is a humorous account of a wise beetle leading the enthusiastic Darwin from discovery to discovery, describing key encounters in his 5-year voyage. But it also leads the reader to consider one of the great scientific theories of our time - how things come to be through natural selection. The clever use of Rosie keeps the pace light and accessible to many age levels without sacrificing intellectual integrity. Lawrence's lush illustrations are beautiful and Weaver's affectionate presentation of Darwin reveal the human side of Charles with a rich factual background. A very engaging read!

The Chachapoya, or Cloud People, created a complex civilization in the upper Amazon of northern Peru in the terrain separating the Marañon and Huallaga basins. Keith Muscutt spent over 20 years studying the civilization. His book is a treasure of careful and vivid writing, enhanced by wonderful photographs of a breathtaking landscape.

The Chachapoya were conquered by the Inca around A.D. 1475, and shortly thereafter were decimated by Spanish colonial rule. Pedro Cieza de León described the Chachapoyas: "They are the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have seen in Indies, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incas' wives and to also be taken to the Sun Temple .... The women and their husbands always dressed in woolen clothes and in their heads they wear their llautos, which are a sign they wear to be known everywhere."

Descendants of these people still live in the region amid the ruins. Muscutt offers splendid color plates of cliff-side tombs mixed with photographs of modern-day village life. His photos also capture the forest-choked valleys, high-altitude lakes, and orchid-studded vegetation.

Vincent Lee's maps of of Vira Vira are excellent. The bibliography, compiled by Douglas Sharon and Muscutt, is first rate. Muscatt traces some of the life of Benigno Añazco, who spent 36 years deep in the Andean forest, founded 14 settlements, abandoned his wife and many children, married one of his daughters, killed his son-in-law, fought drug peddlers, and sought to re-establish the Inca Empire.

According to chachapoyas.com , a website devoted to this book, Keith Muscutt is Assistant Dean of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A native of England, he has traveled widely in the United States, Mexico, and Peru, photographing and writing articles about rock art and pre-Columbian remains. He is the founder of the Fundación Benéfica Niños de Chuquibamba, which promotes the health and education of children in the remote Andean village shown on the cover of this book.

Although the book is ten years old, nothing seems to have supplanted it for a student of the Chachapoyas.

Robert C. Ross 2008

This was an extremely well researched and fascinating book to read. Having been to Machu Picchu myself I was totally absorbed in this other ancient Peruvian culture. A must read for all archaelogy enthusiasts!

I was looking for information on Machu Picchu, when I came across this gem. The cover stirred up fantasies of Shangrila. I was intrigued, ordered it, and was delighted.This is a photographic exploration of Kuelap, a mysterious citadel in the high Andes, discovered seventy years before Machu Picchu. The Chachapoya, or Cloud People (understandably so-called) were the inahabitants of this remote and inaccessible area.Keith Muscutt has provided a detailed and interesting text to accompany this visual feast. He photographs the present inhabitants of the region, supposedly the ancestors of the builders of Kuelap. Perhaps or perhaps not, but interesting anyway.The photographs of tombs built vertically in the cliff side are indescribable. All in all I highly recommend this, whether the interest is information or pleasure. Both are to be found in these pages. Thorough and interesting and visually beautiful.

One of the world's greatest civilizations was the Incan civilization. The Incas settled in Western South America, along the Andes range. This civilization was very similar to the Great Aztec Civilization. The Incas had adapted to their environment. They built terrraces and were skillful builders. Find out how the Great civilization adapted to their environment and how they were conquered by Pizarro's trickery...

Essentially this book gives a chapter for each of the 22 cards of the major arcana of the tarot, similarities are then made with the 22 Lamatl's of `The Book of Days' or the `Tonalamatl' of the Aztecs; correspondence is further made with the deities of Mesoamerica and also with classical European Mythology.

"The tonalamatl is a divinatory almanac used in central Mexico in the decades, and perhaps centuries, leading up to the Spanish conquest. It is Nahuatl in origin, meaning "pages of days". The tonalamatl was structured around the sacred 260-day year, the tonalpohualli. This 260-day year consisted of 20 trecena of 13 days each. Each page of a tonalamatl represented one trecena, and was adorned with a painting of that trecena's reigning deity and decorated with the 13 day-signs and 13 other glyphs. These day-signs and glyphs were used to cast horoscopes and discern the future. The best surviving examples of tonalamatl are the Codex Borbonicus and the Codex Borgia." (From Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia). It should be noted that there are apparently 2 additional trecena's reported by the author of this book; this then makes 22 trecena's, corresponding with the major arcana of the tarot.

I was glad for reading this book to further increase my knowledge of the tarot. My knowledge regarding Mesoamerican deities was fairly limited, so this information I also found very useful. On many occasions while reading this book, I wanted to put this book down and come up to speed via reading more about the Mesoamerican deities and the classical European Mythology (i.e. the Iliad and Odyssey etc); I would recommend doing this prior to reading this book, assuming you have the time. The connections that the author was trying to convey did not always match up for me; perhaps this was due to the gaps in knowledge on my part. Still I did learn a bunch of stuff even though I found this book a little hard going due to its dry nature. What made this book more difficult was trying to pronounce the Mesoamerican deity names and then trying to remember what these deities did in addition. I can't see why anyone would want to read a book like this but for a deep desire to know about spiritual matters. You've got to also wonder why this book is selling as low as it is on Amazon. Still I'm thankful to the author for all her hard work and for compiling all of this information; I have gained from reading this book.

I can't say that I'd use this book to say that all religions are essentially the same. I don't think that this was the intention of this book. I saw more that there is a deep esoteric undercurrent to be discovered.

This book is apparently complicated but in fact is quite simple: underneath the dogma and ceremony, all religions are the same. They have in common a need for answers but also a need for questions that lend themselves to lessons in morality, cautionary tales, structures of ethics that permit the fine fabric of law and society. And furthermore, the societies we think of as primitive are anything but that. Each culture devises a standard of values and behavior, that is essentially like every other culture. A valuable book, a fascinating and provocative one, as applicable as a textbook as a bedside reference source.

The thread that binds cultures is stronger and more firm than most people think. Complicating beliefs in order to make them seem original has nothing to do with their essence. Underneath it all they spring from a common source, with an extraordinary parallelism. God is God, no matter by what name. All of that and more is embraced by this amazing book, beautifully written, thought-provoking, a reference source for a lifetime of consultation. Highly recommended.

This book is a fantastic read - it's passionate, poignant and well written. The research done to write it is obviously extensive and thorough - Carol Miller certainly did her homework! even though the subject is highly intellectual, it's an easy read - great for a flight or a trip to the beach.