Kit's wedding present to his new wife was an unusual one,
but it perfectly suited Stella's personality. He took her
caving, exploring new areas in an effort to find a treasure
secreted by Cedric Owen, a physician and adventurer from
the mid 1500s. Kit had been obsessed with putting together
clues in Cedric's writings and he was pretty sure he had
figured out where the flawless sapphire, carved as a
perfect human skull, could be found.
He was right, and Stella triumphantly rose from the cold
water at the bottom of the cave, holding the lime-encrusted
masterpiece. But the two are followed out of the cave and
in their haste, Kit sustains a terrible fall. At first, it
seems he might die, but then he recovers, with terrible
physical problems.
Stella is trying to figure out what the skulls means and
begins to understand that it's supposed to be part of the
solution that will stop Armageddon. Prophecies indicate the
world will end on December 21, 2012, and the more she
learns, the more she believes that, as the keeper of the
skull, she must stop the ultimate disaster.
Wow! Does one word count as an adequate review? From the
first page, the action never stops in this adventure.
Terrific characterization, an intriguing plot and best of
all, flashbacks to Cedric Owen's life and adventures. As a
writer, I think it's challenging to make those flashbacks
without losing the flow of the story. Ms. Scott does it
well. If you're not reading her, you're missing a marvelous
storyteller.
In a spellbinding blend of history, myth, and science,
bestselling novelist Manda Scott unleashes a thriller that
sweeps from the secrets of the Mayans to the court of a
sixteenth-century queen to a shattering end-times
prophecy. “It’s a lump of rock,
Stella; nothing more. No stone is worth dying for.”
Except it’s not just a lump of rock. It’s a
blue crystal skull made by the Maya to save the world from
ruin; a sapphire so perfect, so powerful that for
centuries men have killed to own or destroy
it.
Ancient prophecies say that if the thirteen
skulls already in existence are not reunited, the world
will end on December 21, 2012. Cedric Owen, the skull’s
last Keeper, died so that it might keep its secret for the
next four centuries. Now Stella Cody has found it, and
someone has already tried to kill her. Like Owen, she’s
being hunted—but by whom?
Desperate to unravel the
mystery of the crystal skull, Stella must decode Cedric
Owen’s coded writings, sketches and ciphers no scholar has
been able to unravel. What she discovers is astounding: a
shocking secret prophecy…and the staggering puzzle of four
terrifying creatures, thirteen precious stones, and what
will happen if Cedric Owen’s crystal skull falls into the
wrong hands. But time is against Stella. She has only days—
hours—left to uncover the only secret that may yet save
the world.
12.21.12 The date is set. Time is
running out. The end of the world starts
now.