Part of Series
Maxwell Barnes is an archeologist and the son of an archeologist. He and his companion, friend, and brother since youth, Axel Morales, have been treasure hunting for their benefactor Myron Crabtree, in the jungles of Guatemala. This area, not coincidentally, is also rumored to be the location of the last great city of the Maya, the legendary Ahrum. When Max meets a man who appears to be a young Mayan skateboard punk, his entire world is turned upside down as he hears the true story of the city’s demise, and of the Crystal of Ahrum, lost then but supposedly capable of restoring the ancient Mayan empire. Along the way he also meets Isabel García, a Spanish beauty who is far more than meets the eye, and a man named Estrada – who could be the evilest person on the planet. Adventure, romance, and more than a little excitement all await you in book one of The Crystal of Ahrum: Mayan Shadows!
Authors
Scott James (S.J.) Varengo was born in 1960, in a city called New York. Two years later he formed a band called The Beatles [citation needed]. He returned to New York City to attend Fordham University (having been told it was a basketball powerhouse) before transferring to the State University of New York at Potsdam (having been told it was located in the tropics), from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in Art History. Varengo loves to read (favorite authors include Craig A. Hart, Kurt Vonnegut, J.R.R. Tolkien and an up-and-comer named Ernie Heming-something-or-other), listen to music (when he writes, it's usually jazz - the rest of the time it's Tasmanian flute concertos), and walk along forested trails with his wife Kim and their dog Tanner. He lives in Baldwinsville, NY, a suburb of Syracuse, known for its picturesque setting and its friendly people. He has two adult children of whom he is obnoxiously proud. His published works include a volume of short fiction, two fantasy novels, and an ever-growing list of spy/espionage novellas, which he co-writes with Craig A. Hart.
Craig A. Hart is a writer of thrillers. In a past life, he was also director for Northern Illinois Radio Information Service, a broadcast outreach that brought daily news and information to the visually impaired. In 2015, Kindle Press published his literary novel BECOMING MOON. NPR affiliate Northern Public Radio featured BECOMING MOON in their Winter Book Series, and it won Best Novel of Summer 2015 from Pinnacle Awards. He is also the author of the historical mystery NIGHT AT KEY WEST, which is based on true events. In 2016, he publishing SERENITY, the first book in the popular Shelby Alexander Thriller Series. Serenity alone has been downloaded over 400,000 times by eager readers. In 2022, he launched the Maxwell Barnes Adventure Thriller Series, co-written with S.J. Varengo. The award-winning first book in that series, MAYAN SHADOWS, was published on May 11, 2022. Two more books follow in that series: MAYAN THUNDER and MAYAN TEMPEST. A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Craig lives in Iowa City, Iowa with his wife, sons, insane dog, and anti-social cat.
