title: The Demon of the Air: An Aztec Mystery (Aztec Mysteries)
author:  Simon Levack 
description: <i>Starred Review.</i> Historical novels, let alone debuts, don't get much better than British author Levack's outstanding effort, set in the heyday of the Aztec empire two years before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. Already, rumors of pale, bearded men with strange weapons have reached the emperor, Montezuma. When a human sacrifice to the war-god goes wrongthe intended victim makes an ominous prophecy before jumping to his death off the Great Pyramidthe ensuing uproar threatens the power of the emperor and his chief minister, Black Feathers. Both Montezuma and Black Feathers charge Yaotl, a disgraced priest now the minister's slave, with discovering the reason for the suicide. Yaotl, who narrates this rich tale, doggedly pursues a twisted trail of plots and counterplots toward the truth. Levack makes comprehensible and familiar a society that seems at first glance alien. Sixteenth-century Mexico comes to wonderful life in this gripping, multifaceted mystery, winner of the 2004 CWA Debut Dagger Award. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ![image](../../cover1.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  Neil Flambé
  
  
  ![image](../images/common.jpg) AND THE ![image](../images/common.jpg)
  
  
  AZTEC ABDUCTION
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Also by Kevin Sylvester
  
  
  Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/title.jpg)
  
  
  For Lolo, Schmoo, and Tink
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  [Chapter One: Three Chapters and Two Weeks Earlier than Chapter
  Four](ch01.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Two: Making Scents](ch02.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Three: A Missed Warning](ch03.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Four: High Altitude and Haute Cuisine](ch04.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Five: Just Seconds after Chapter Four](ch05.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Six: Hell’s Smells](ch06.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Seven: On the Edge](ch07.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Eight: Butting Heads](ch08.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Nine: Cortez, Codex, and Cooking](ch09.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Ten: Bells and Whistles](ch10.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Eleven: In-flight Entertainment](ch11.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Twelve: Trash Talk and Tamales](ch12.html)
  
  
  [Chapter Thirteen: Perfumed Prisoner](ch13.html)
  
  
  [Chapter 