Mayan ruins in the Yucatán . a key room inside a tomb . . . age-old skeletons. To anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the renowned Skeleton Detective, the invitation to join the archaeological excavation of Tlaloc promises 8 weeks of paradise on the planet.

That is, until a historical series of Mayan curses against desecrators of the website is unearthed. When the initial one comes to move (‘The bloodsucking kinkajou should come openly among them’), it is used by all being a useful joke. But by enough time the fourth one is evidently consummated (‘The one called Xecotcavach will pierce their skulls in order that their brains spill onto the earth’), nerves have begun to fray and suspicions and discord are mounting.

The steamy jungles weigh down on the band of eccentric anthropologists as one by one the curses continue steadily to materialize. It requires Gideon’s special abilities for deduction-along with the enigmatic insights of Mexico’s one and only Mayan Indian inspector from the condition judicial police-to fix a historical riddle and a modern, murderous mystery.