Stanley Struble

In the Time of the Feathered Serpent Stanley Struble

In the Time of the Feathered Serpent is the third book in an exciting trilogy that combines anthropology with murder and suspense. Set in modern day Mexico it follows the story begun in Xibalba: In Search of the Lost Mayan Texts and Gospel of the Feathered Serpent. When 2000-year-old scrolls, containing the lost Gospel of St. Thomas, are discovered in the jungles of southern Mexico they ignite a frenzied competition. Corrupt government agents, an archeologist looking for the next great discovery, narco-traffickers, Zapatista rebels, a Mayan holy man and a messianic priest all rush to posses the scrolls. While the Vatican roils under his reforms, Pope Lucas plans to travel to Mexico. His savant friend and trusted aide, Sister Angelina, will observe and report on Vatican activities in his absence. As expected, those unhappy with the reform-minded pontiff and his policies plot a coup in his absence. The pontiff has arranged to leave his entourage for two days on the final leg of his journey in southern Chiapas State. Pope Lucas hopes that a shaman and archaeologist will lead him to a former Catholic priest, a 'Holy Man', who performs miracles among the Indians and who has in his possession a 'Holy Cup' recovered from a Mayan burial box. This ancient coffin also contained seven papyrus scrolls from the 1st Century and an uncorrupted body of an even older 'Holy Man', believed by many in the Vatican to be the apostle St. Thomas. When a Papal Inquisitor dispatched to investigate the body and books loses his life, the pontiff feels compelled to recover Christianity's greatest treasures. The corpse of St. Thomas, the papyrus scrolls, and 'Holy Grail' are the bargaining tools of a Mayan shaman whose only goal is to improve the abominable conditions of the poverty stricken Maya Indians through the success of the Zapatista Rebellion in Mexico's southern Chiapas State. The trusting pope, who is in very poor health, experiences great hardship and tremendous peril, including a mushroom-induced hallucinogenic "trip" with the Indian shaman. While on his way to the Yaxchilan Mayan ruin to meet the 'Holy Man' and recover the 1st Century scrolls, the pope is abducted by narco-traffickers on the Usumacinta River, tortured and left for dead. Similarly, all major characters in the book are placed in a crucible with personal redemption or death the only alternatives.