Temple of the Jaguar (Nick Caine Book 1) by J. R. Rain or Aiden James begins in Honduras, with part-time Archaeologist and full-time antiquities looter Nick Caine and his helper Ishi digging in a remote section of the Rain Forest. They had found a 6” golden dagger, which they were going to “appropriate” for their own benefit! Ishi was a Tawankan Indian, and Nick’s translation of the dagger’s worth meant “many shiny coins.”  Later, back in the hotel, Nick got an urgent message requesting a meeting from a woman named Marie Da Vinci.

At a local dealer’s shop where Nick occasionally pawns trinkets, he is forced to interrupt his familiar haggling to make his “Date” with this Marie Da Vinci. He also is sure he would hear from the dealer with a much better offer in a few days.

His meeting started off on a rough note, as he mentioned that there was another “Da Vinci” about going by the first name of Leonardo. He was a looter like Nick, albeit a more bloodthirsty one. Marie quickly admitted that he was her Uncle. They had some small talk concerning the finding of lost antiquities, and she pointed out that he himself skated somewhat under the law on occasion. Finally, he came to the point and asked her what she wanted with him.

Marie wanted him to help her find the “Ciudad Blanca” …the White City. “It’s just a Fairy Tale,” he replied, “It doesn’t exist.” After some discussion on that point, she pulled out some fuzzy Polaroids showing that she had been there. On the photograph was a picture of a stone glyph, which turned out to be a Mayan glyph that gave instructions on how to get to the White City. Her father had been killed by her uncle to retrieve this information, but he did not get the CD ROM that contained the deciphering information. She showed this to Nick. After retiring to his hotel room and studying the information available, he agreed to help. However, he did so wondering just what he had gotten himself into!

They set off into the jungle in a Jeep, but soon desert it because of the dense impenetrable brush. They traversed caverns and rivers, pits with uncatalogued critters resembling a mix between snakes and lizards. Next, they found a humanoid creature with a distinctly reptilian head, somewhat resembling a gator. Seems that the masters of the White City, whoever they were and whenever they existed, had somehow learned to modify the indigenous animals on a genetic level.

Without giving away too much of the plot, there is the expected showdown at the end of the book between Nick, Ishi, and Marie versus Marie’s Uncle. All ends well.

The book is short, the chapters are short, sometimes a short read is just the thing! The action is more or less standard for this type of novel, but there are enough plot twists to keep it interesting

Reviewed by Jimmy Martin, author of the Sam Cloudstone Chronicles