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Trial in Jade:
The Mayan Return
Book Two of the Maya Earth Trilogy

by Margaret Evans



      Archaeologists Amy Parrish and Joe Magee are back in book two of the Maya Earth Trilogy, Trial in Jade: The Mayan Return, by Margaret Evans. It is now 2010, two years before the beginning of the new Mayan age called the Sixth World. The couple is now married with a two-year-old child and is expecting another baby. They have kept the secret of the new Mayan city being unearthed on their land in northern California, and Amy has a new role to fulfill as Bringer of the Sixth World. Unfortunately, major historic events don't always unfold smoothly. Here, a rival Mayan group threatens the peaceful rise of the Sixth World through a challenge called a Trial in Jade, and Amy and Joe find themselves in the middle of these two factions.

Evans once again builds on her scholarship of the Mayan prophecy and gives further details about the two groups vying for leadership in the coming new age. A new element to the Mayan prophesy is introduced with Amy’s many journeys across the globe delivering seeds. She doesn't know what they are for or even who the people are who are receiving them because often she just leaves them in public places. The answer to that is revealed in the final pages of this book. However, other questions are not fully answered, but will be, I'm sure, in the third and final book, Kingdom Come: The Mayan Answer, due out next year.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, The Sixth World (also reviewed on Myshelf), and this new one is even better. Though there is less international intrigue, there still is mystery and adventure - and even a forbidden romance between Joe's cousin and a Mayan beauty. Evans has certainly captured my interest with this series. With her scholarship and storytelling ability, she can certainly apply her talents to other topics. I predict Margaret Evans will be a very popular new novelist. Brava!

The Book

Moonlight Mystery Press
November 2007
Trade Paperback
0978907612 / 978-0978907617
Mystery / thriller
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Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Janie Franz
Reviewed 2008
NOTE: Reviewer Janie Franz is the author of Freelance Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid!and co-author of The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book and The Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book. Coming Soon: The Ultimate Wedding Workbook.
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