First published 2012
Chel Manu, the Getty Museum's Antiquities Curator and leading expert on Maya inscriptions, faces an impossible choice when a smuggled codex arrives at her door in December 2012. The painted manuscript survived centuries in an undiscovered Maya city before a looter brought it to America. Chel knows she should report the artifact, but the chance to translate it herself proves irresistible. Her decision becomes deadly when a mysterious patient appears in an LA hospital, dying from Fatal Insomnia and speaking only garbled Maya dialect. Chel translates his final words as the rare neurological disease spreads rapidly through the city. With December 21st approaching and an ancient prophecy predicting the world's end, infection spreads beyond control. The codex holds the key to understanding what's happening, but deciphering it becomes a race against time as civilization collapses around Chel. She must unlock the manuscript's secrets before the prophecy fulfills itself and humanity faces extinction.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, adventure, mystery, archaeology, 21st-century, academic, apocalyptic
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: ancient-mystery, civilization-collapse, race-against-time
Setting: Getty Museum, LA, Maya City, United States
Period: 2012, December 21
326 pages · Hardcover · The Dial Press
Content warnings: death, medical-trauma, terminal-illness