The Last Conquistador A Novel [Paperback]

A series of child abductions near the Andes Mountains lands a Peruvian archaeologist and an American FBI agent deep in an ancient Incan mystery.

At the foot of a crumbling sacrificial altar on an Andes mountaintop, Nina Ramirez, an archaeology professor at Cuzco University in Peru, makes two stunning discoveries. One is the mummified body of an Inca girl buried five centuries ago. The other is the corpse of a young boy, recently reported missing, now unearthed in a freshly dug grave—and dressed in the same distinctive ritual shawl as the ancient victim. It’s a clue Nina’s ex-lover, FBI agent Adam Palma, never wanted to find.

A hostage retrieval specialist, Adam has been enlisted to find the son of a State Department official kidnapped in Lima—just one in a series of child abductions reported throughout the South American country. But as his path converges with Nina’s, he must contend with a new fear: Someone is reviving the ancient Inca tradition of human sacrifice. With the help of a mysterious young boy, Nina and Adam’s investigation will lead them into the endless unknown of the Amazon jungle to follow the shadow of a legendary conquistador. But to solve a twenty-first-century mystery, they will first have to face one in Adam’s own savage and distant past: his link to the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

Michael Elias is a screenwriter and director. His credits includeThe Jerk,Serial,The Frisco Kid,Envoyez les Violins, andYoung Doctors in Love. He wrote and directed the acclaimed jazz filmLush Life, starring Jeff Goldblum and Forest Whitaker. Elias lives in Los Angeles with his son, Fred, and his partner, Bianca Roberts, a vice president of the California Institute of the Arts.The Last Conquistadoris his first novel.