Investigator hunts a cursed ancient manuscript that’s left a bloody trail from Mexico to Manhattan.
Blood Rituals is a dark, twisty mystery suspense thriller in which resolute insurance investigator Van Hazard is hired to recover an ancient Mayan manuscript that’s left a bloody trail from Mexico to Manhattan.
The Xibalba Codex is stolen from a murdered curator before its unveiling in a New York museum. The chief suspects include a pair of bitter rivals with links to the priceless artifact: the mercurial tomb robber with a mysterious past who found it in a Yucatan jungle temple, and an eccentric scholar and descendant of Mayan shaman priests who believes he’s the manuscript’s rightful custodian. Hazard’s unwavering pursuit of the Codex is hindered by a treacherous ring of antiquities traffickers, the beguiling lure of a haunted old flame, and the festering wrath of an overdue debt dead set on final reckoning.
Blood Rituals is the second Van Hazard Mystery, following The Art of Obsession, the inaugural entry in a series featuring the volatile investigator’s exploits recovering lost and stolen art. Hazard is a man at war with personal demons and an increasingly unhinged world. Kyoko Dunne, his fearless partner in crime-solving, usually keeps him from going over the edge, but this time he'll have to survive a deadly curse to collect his fee.
