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You are here: Home / BOOKS / Book Reviews / Book Review: The Death Relic by Chris Kuzneski

Book Review: The Death Relic by Chris Kuzneski

31 October 2011 by Patricia Kekewick

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Rating: ★★★½☆

The Death Relic is pure adventure. The central characters Jonathan Payne and David Jones are called to Mexico to help out a past acquaintance who believes that she’s in trouble.

There’s a lot going on in this book. Concurrent storylines run together and it’s only towards the end that the reader discovers the link between the abduction of a professional kidnapper’s children and the search for the missing, possibly abducted researcher that their colleague, Maria Pelati, has requested them to help her find.

The plot is filled with unexpected turns, including the return of a missing, presumed dead colleague from a prior mission and a gun battle between abductor and bodyguard that takes place in the Mayan ruins deep in the Mexican jungle.

Kuzneski has clearly done his research on both the Mayan culture as well as US military tactics as both flow through the book, educating the reader at the same time as entertaining them. It can be a lot to take in at times, but the payoff at the end of the book is worth the set up.

The characters are well rounded, strong individuals who live in the reader’s mind instead of just words on the page. A lot of this is created by the gentle teasing that goes between Payne and Jones, whose history together as former leaders of Special Forces Unit, the MANIACS, is referred to, but not gone into with the depth that would alienate regular readers of Kuzneski’s work with these characters. The use of humour creates depth to the characters and keeps the reader involved, caring about what might happen next in the story and how it will affect these people.

The potential for romance is set up between Jones and Maria towards the end of the book that will leave readers hoping for more.

Their search for the researcher will lead them to discover the Death Relic, and what makes this artefact so desirable.

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Comments

  1. Kislay Vermaq says

    7 December 2012 at 9:47 pm

    Finally finished reading “The Death Relic”.

    Quite unusual for a Payne and Jones novel – not much bloodletting, not many convoluted codes. Just an immensely enjoyable lesson in ancient history with an interesting interpretation at the end. I actually thought that the characters (except Petr Ulster, that guy is brilliant!!!) were the weak link in the story. Terence is out of the picture nearly all the time, Maria complains way too much. I love ancient history so I actually quite enjoyed the extended dispositions on the Maya.

    My review at – http://www.solomonsays.in/reviews/78

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