Demon Of The Air - Tapa blanda

Mexico-Tenochtitlan, in the year Twelve-House: the vast, teeming city of the Aztecs at the height of its glory. As the novel opens, the Chief Minister's trusted slave Yaotl is escorting a sacrificial victim up the steps of the Great Pyramid to celebrate the Festival of the Raising of Banners. Used to the bloodstained rites of the War-God's priests, Yaotl is unperturbed at the ritual slaughter of the so-called Flowery Death. When the victim runs amok and leaps to his death before he can be sacrificed, Yaotl's only worry is how to explain it to his master. But when more bodies start to appear and the Emperor Montezuma starts asking questions about the sorcerers who have vanished from his impregnable prison, Yaotl realises he needs answers soon. The secrets he uncovers will unlock nightmares from his own youth and threaten the future of everything he knows.

Simon Levack trained as a solicitor and still works in the legal profession. He lives in east London with his wife and son. He is the author of three Aztec murder mysteries: A DEMON OF THE AIR, which won the Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger Award; SHADOW OF THE LORDS and A CITY OF SPIES. Visit www.simonlevack.co.uk