Manda Scott

In a spellbinding blend of history, myth, and science, bestselling novelist Manda Scott unleashes a thriller that sweeps from the secrets of the Mayans to the court of a sixteenth-century queen to a shattering end-times prophecy. "It's a lump of rock, Stella; nothing more. No stone is worth dying for." Except it's not just a lump of rock. It's a blue crystal skull made by the Maya to save the world from ruin; a sapphire so perfect, so powerful that for centuries men have killed to own or destroy it.Ancient prophecies say that if the thirteen skulls already in existence are not reunited, the world will end on December 21, 2012. Cedric Owen, the skull's last Keeper, died so that it might keep its secret for the next four centuries. Now Stella Cody has found it, and someone has already tried to kill her. Like Owen, she's being hunted--but by whom?Desperate to unravel the mystery of the crystal skull, Stella must decode Cedric Owen's coded writings, sketches and ciphers no scholar has been able to unravel. What she discovers is astounding: a shocking secret prophecy...and the staggering puzzle of four terrifying creatures, thirteen precious stones, and what will happen if Cedric Owen's crystal skull falls into the wrong hands. But time is against Stella. She has only days--hours--left to uncover the only secret that may yet save the world.12.21.12The date is set. Time is running out.The end of the world starts now.From the Hardcover edition.

The crystal skull has a power of attraction that has led many to seek its beauty at a local South Florida museum. So much so that a wealthy art patron has decided to bankroll the search for the skull's missing twin, an artifact of ancient history and rumor. Legend has it that the person in possession of the pair will live forever. For Florida P.I. Nicholas Pierce the case has all the earmarks of a paid vacation, albeit an unusual one. But when the museum director turns up dead and the museum's original skull turns up missing, the vacation turns into a nightmare. Only in a demented dream would Pierce find a cast of suspects as strange as this: an aging counterculture psychology professor, a mega-maniacal moviemaker, and a paranormal anthropologist as sexy as she is smart.Amid the swamps of South Florida, the trail gets murkier and the plot stickier until our investigator pierces the heart of the mystery. This insane search for immortality may drive Pierce out of own his skull if it doesn't kill everyone first.

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"Among the tribes, none would believe that their most hated enemy - the bloodthirsty cavalry commander astride a pied war-horse - could be one of their own...or that he might hold their fate in his hands. But as the fires of the war between the tribes and the occupying armies of Rome rage on, dozens of lives will be drawn into the conflict. Caradoc, the Eceni warrior who will come face-to-face with the emperor himself. Cunomar, son of a warrior queen, who will learn about war - and sacrifice - at his parents' side. Agrippina, the mesmerizing empress whose guile equals that of her husband. Claudius, the omnipotent yet terrified ruler mired in a war he must win at all costs. And then there is Valerius. Caught between worlds, he has the hardest task of all - coming to terms with his heritage and where his choices have taken him - on a perilous journey back to a fateful confrontation with the most feared woman in Brittania... Boudica."--BOOK JACKET.