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Place of Fright: A Race to the Maya Underworld
The end is near and feeds off your fear! When a Maya medallion releases its ancient power and destroys an entire town, a string of events unfold that leads to bloodshed and maybe even the end of humanity.
Archaeologist and professor, Dr. Allan Pennbrook, finds his dear friend and colleague murdered and an ancient Mayan codex stolen. The young archaeologist is recruited by the CIA to help them investigate the secret society responsible for the brutal murder. His archaeological background and ability to read ancient Mayan are sorely needed to solve this ancient mystery.
Allan, and CIA agent Laina Sanders, are swiftly thrust into a pulse pounding adventure leading them through Merida, Mexico, the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza, and the treacherous jungles of the Yucatan in a perilous race to Xibalba - the Maya underworld.
Allan and Laina must face their greatest fears and evade the horrors released from the underworld before the total solar eclipse. If they should fail, the ancient prophecy will unleash a destructive force of epic proportions.
Archaeologist and professor, Dr. Allan Pennbrook, finds his dear friend and colleague murdered and an ancient Mayan codex stolen. The young archaeologist is recruited by the CIA to help them investigate the secret society responsible for the brutal murder. His archaeological background and ability to read ancient Mayan are sorely needed to solve this ancient mystery.
Allan, and CIA agent Laina Sanders, are swiftly thrust into a pulse pounding adventure leading them through Merida, Mexico, the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza, and the treacherous jungles of the Yucatan in a perilous race to Xibalba - the Maya underworld.
Allan and Laina must face their greatest fears and evade the horrors released from the underworld before the total solar eclipse. If they should fail, the ancient prophecy will unleash a destructive force of epic proportions.
214 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 24, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 7, 2024
An archaeologist receives a photo from a colleague of a recently discovered ancient Mayan codex, just before said colleague gets murdered. Now there are people coming after him too, descendants of an ancient bloodthirsty Mayan cult. With the help of the CIA, he’s got no choice but to translate what’s on the photo and discover the true meaning of the codex before it’s too late.
It’s like The Da Vinci Code but with Mayan history and mythology and with some supernatural elements. The plot is quite good, with plenty of action and excitement. The locations and the background information on the Mayans are really fascinating and you can tell this is the true hart of the story as it’s told with passion. And I would definitely like to see more of the Mayan culture represented in fiction stories like this.
This book does a lot of things right but it unfortunately does one thing very wrong. And that’s the characters.
The male archeologist feels way too competent and it makes his partner - the female CIA agent - look incompetent in comparison. The archeologist for example arrives at the murder scene in the beginning and it feels like he’s interrogating the female CIA agent who’s leading the investigation, instead of the other way around. The archeologist always steals the show. Even during action scenes, which seem like a perfect fit for the female CIA agent to shine. While he has no combat skills and is unarmed, he still manages to easily kick the behinds of crazy and armed members of an ancient Mayan cult.
The supposedly highly skilled and armed female CIA agent doesn’t really do much besides basking in his glory. She’s constantly praising him, sniffing his aftershave like it’s a drug and basically worshipping him like he’s some kind of sex god. I found this character very frustrating and highly annoying to read to be honest.
Another character who’s not fleshed out well is the antagonist. Carlos the bad guy feels like he’s evil just for the sake of being evil. Apart from being a ruthless killer and a cult leader, the only thing we find out about him is that he likes to kill women while he’s having sex with them.
Overall, it’s a pretty solid read with plenty of action and fascinating Mayan history and mythology. But the characters devaluate the story for me. This is the writer’s debut story so I’ll be gentle in my rating as writing a book is hard and he did manage to get a lot of things right, which should be applauded and appreciated. And I know from experience that writing a character of the opposite sex is not as easy as it sounds.
It’s like The Da Vinci Code but with Mayan history and mythology and with some supernatural elements. The plot is quite good, with plenty of action and excitement. The locations and the background information on the Mayans are really fascinating and you can tell this is the true hart of the story as it’s told with passion. And I would definitely like to see more of the Mayan culture represented in fiction stories like this.
This book does a lot of things right but it unfortunately does one thing very wrong. And that’s the characters.
The male archeologist feels way too competent and it makes his partner - the female CIA agent - look incompetent in comparison. The archeologist for example arrives at the murder scene in the beginning and it feels like he’s interrogating the female CIA agent who’s leading the investigation, instead of the other way around. The archeologist always steals the show. Even during action scenes, which seem like a perfect fit for the female CIA agent to shine. While he has no combat skills and is unarmed, he still manages to easily kick the behinds of crazy and armed members of an ancient Mayan cult.
The supposedly highly skilled and armed female CIA agent doesn’t really do much besides basking in his glory. She’s constantly praising him, sniffing his aftershave like it’s a drug and basically worshipping him like he’s some kind of sex god. I found this character very frustrating and highly annoying to read to be honest.
Another character who’s not fleshed out well is the antagonist. Carlos the bad guy feels like he’s evil just for the sake of being evil. Apart from being a ruthless killer and a cult leader, the only thing we find out about him is that he likes to kill women while he’s having sex with them.
Overall, it’s a pretty solid read with plenty of action and fascinating Mayan history and mythology. But the characters devaluate the story for me. This is the writer’s debut story so I’ll be gentle in my rating as writing a book is hard and he did manage to get a lot of things right, which should be applauded and appreciated. And I know from experience that writing a character of the opposite sex is not as easy as it sounds.
October 11, 2025
I have mixed feelings about this book. The plot, characters, and overall story are chef's kiss. This is a great adventure story idea that delves into Mayan mythology and offers paranormal action along with your classic Tomb Raiders of the Lost Ark amalgation style. Absolute 5* idea.
Unfortunately, the execution is 3*. The prose is a bit repetitive and over explanatory. There's too much "tell" and not enough "show". This book needs a strong content editor. It starts with good action to set up the story and then tries to teach the reader about Mayan mythology rather than showing it to us. About midway through the book I began to skim. It's a classic "soggy middle" issue that most of us are guilty of at least once. This sent me itno scan mode and I skimmed for the highlights for about the middle 70-90 pages. Takes me out of the story when that happens.
I'm giving this book 4* because, as I said before, the plot, the characters, and the story itself are fun to read. The hook of the idea is enough to get you to read the book and the characters are compelling enough to make you want to stick out the soggy middle to see how things end. Some characters could use more fleshing out and the word space used in repetitive instruction would be better used on those characters.
With a bit of refining, this book would be 5*. It's engaging enough to lure us back in around page 187...the ending is fast paced, filled with action, and improves on the "show, don't tell" nature of the middle.
I'd read more from C.L. Holzapfel to see how furture books improve because there's some excellent story telling in Place of Fright and overall, I did enjoy the ride.
Unfortunately, the execution is 3*. The prose is a bit repetitive and over explanatory. There's too much "tell" and not enough "show". This book needs a strong content editor. It starts with good action to set up the story and then tries to teach the reader about Mayan mythology rather than showing it to us. About midway through the book I began to skim. It's a classic "soggy middle" issue that most of us are guilty of at least once. This sent me itno scan mode and I skimmed for the highlights for about the middle 70-90 pages. Takes me out of the story when that happens.
I'm giving this book 4* because, as I said before, the plot, the characters, and the story itself are fun to read. The hook of the idea is enough to get you to read the book and the characters are compelling enough to make you want to stick out the soggy middle to see how things end. Some characters could use more fleshing out and the word space used in repetitive instruction would be better used on those characters.
With a bit of refining, this book would be 5*. It's engaging enough to lure us back in around page 187...the ending is fast paced, filled with action, and improves on the "show, don't tell" nature of the middle.
I'd read more from C.L. Holzapfel to see how furture books improve because there's some excellent story telling in Place of Fright and overall, I did enjoy the ride.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews