cover image Demon of the Air: An Aztec Mystery

Demon of the Air: An Aztec Mystery

Simon Levack, . . St. Martin's Minotaur/ Dunne, $23.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-312-34834-2

Historical novels, let alone debuts, don't get much better than British author Levack's outstanding effort, set in the heyday of the Aztec empire two years before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. Already, rumors of pale, bearded men with strange weapons have reached the emperor, Montezuma. When a human sacrifice to the war-god goes wrong—the intended victim makes an ominous prophecy before jumping to his death off the Great Pyramid—the ensuing uproar threatens the power of the emperor and his chief minister, Black Feathers. Both Montezuma and Black Feathers charge Yaotl, a disgraced priest now the minister's slave, with discovering the reason for the suicide. Yaotl, who narrates this rich tale, doggedly pursues a twisted trail of plots and counterplots toward the truth. Levack makes comprehensible and familiar a society that seems at first glance alien. Sixteenth-century Mexico comes to wonderful life in this gripping, multifaceted mystery, winner of the 2004 CWA Debut Dagger Award. Agent, Jane Gregory (U.K.). (Sept.)