Title: Lost Prince
ISBN: 978-1-62420-204-9
Author: Gregory Gourlay
Genre: adventure/suspense
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 2
Lost Prince
Gregory Gourlay
978-1-62420-204-9
By Greg Didaleusky
5 Stars out of 5
A perilous adventure for Garrick Connolly in his pursuit for the hidden treasure of an Incas civilization. The author integrated the story of Yahuar Huaccac, priest of Incas. and his determination to hide the treasures of his people during the Spaniard invasion of Peru. It was fast moving novel. I enjoyed every chapter as the author brought you to a unexpected ending. Reviewed by Greg Didaleusky.
TAGLINE
Mystery, history, and war. Lost Prince transports the reader from pre-Hispanic 16th century Peru to the modern Peru of today.
BLURB: Lost Prince
Garrick Connolly, young American war veteran, struggling with his experiences from Afghanistan, learns of the "legend of the cave," the final resting place of the Lost Prince, during a visit to Peru. For centuries, sealed up inside a cliff face in one of the deepest canyons on earth, the mummified remains of Yahuar Huaccac, priest of the Incas, young man of noble birth, has stood lonely vigil over the gleaming antiquities from an Incan temple.
Through the towering Andes Mountains, Garrick follows the clues left behind by Yahuar Huaccac and unlocks the ancient mystery.
Author's note: "There is an actual 'legend of the cave' in an Andean valley I am very familiar with. A cave in a soaring cliff face is sealed up with a black stone. I don't know what is inside."
EXCERPT: Lost Prince
The four men in U.S. Army combat uniforms stumbled out of the ravine, and trundled through the orderly rows of pomegranate trees at a tired run. Two of them supported a wounded man between them. They halted at the edge of the orchard to quickly scan the stretch of open ground just ahead. Beyond was the extraction place, behind a tumbled down mud brick wall. Camel dung fouled the ground amidst a scattering of aromatic rosemary bushes.
"Go! Go!" panted one of them, a short, black man with sweat rolling down his face in little rivers. "I'll hang on here. Just get on that radio."
He slipped a few yards to one side and sank down onto his belly behind a fruit tree.
Garrick Connolly nodded gratefully in the black man's direction, relief evident on his square, sub-nosed features that someone had taken charge and was making decisions now that the officer was dead. He moved onward without speaking, carrying the wounded man with his remaining comrade.
The wounded man's right leg dangled horribly. A piece of bone, jagged and gleaming white in the hot sunlight, had erupted through the skin of his thigh. A gobbet of flesh appeared set to fall off.
He was unconscious, but when they fell sprawling on a patch of slippery camel dung, a horrible, bubbling scream issued from his throat.
"Ahhh!"
The other man, Robert Maguire, a tall, weedy youth from South Carolina known simply as "Molly," scrabbled backwards in quick revulsion. His eyes looked as agitated and unpredictable as storm scud. His big, under-slung jaw quivered like a baby's set to cry."Sheeeit!" he spewed, despising his wounded friend for his suffering, and for adding to their danger.
Garrick Connolly eyed him disgustedly. "Go ahead," he growled. "Get that radio working. I'll carry him."
"Yeah, man. Shore." Molly licked his lips appreciatively at the offer. He darted a glance at the pomegranate orchard to the rear, then left, his skinny body gliding across the dry Afghan ground as quick and as noiseless as a snake.
Grunting softly, Garrick got the injured man up onto his back. In his early twenties, slim-hipped and wide-shouldered, Garrick carried the load easily. With slow, careful movements to ease the wounded man's injuries, he worked his way along the path Molly had taken.
Molly's voice on the radio drifted in, giving their situation, the words tumbling out. "We got mortared," Molly babbled, "got our shit scattered, only four of us left–one hurt bad. Hajis coming up fast. Require extraction soonest! Repeat, soonest!" He gave their position. "Do you read that? Ovah."
"That's a Roger, good buddy. Ten minutes."
Molly threw himself to the ground, flinging sweat from his face. A soft noise sounded and Garrick appeared. He lowered the wounded man gently to the ground.
"Choppah's comin'," Molly blurted.
"I heard. Thank Christ!"
Molly kept staring at him. "What'cha think?" he shrilled.
Garrick's soft hazel eyes, his one truly beautiful feature, narrowed into anxious slits at these signs of panic, and they tightened further when he looked to the wounded man painting crimson patterns on a patch of sparse grass with blood from his smashed leg. It was their responsibility to get him out, and if Molly didn't keep his head....
"You all right?"
"Shore," Molly shot back. But the telltale tremor in his lantern jaw was back, so Garrick knew he was lying.
Nothing in boot camp, or in advanced individual training, could possibly prepare a soldier for the shock of his first firefight. The realization that enemy soldiers were actually intent on killing you. Killing you! He winced, hearing again the evil sound mortar rounds make leaving the firing tubes–phafft, phafft–and the shattering karrumpp as the shells sent shrapnel and stones and dirt winging in all directions.
A spine of rock slanted down, providing a narrow place for them to shelter behind, the broken mud-brick wall offered some small protection also. Garrick squatted in the meager shelter and waited. He placed a smoke grenade close at hand, and removed the safety clip from a fragmentation grenade. Then, he fell to checking his rifle with nervous fingers for something to do. Long minutes went by. A soft breeze arrived, fanning his cheek and teasing his nostrils with the combined scent of camel dung and rosemary.
"When's Simpson coming?" he wondered aloud, referring to the black soldier at the pomegranate orchard. "He should pull back. We're gonna be outta here soon."
As if in answer to his question, a lone rifle shot cracked, sounding like one of the World War Two vintage .303s the Taliban sometimes used for longer range work. Garrick's stomach jumped ever so gently. An eternity dragged by, then a recognizable three round burst from a M4 carbine erupted. That would be Simpson.
REVIEW
Lost Prince
by Gregory Gourlay
Five Stars
Reviewed by Mike Fuller
Yet another foray into the mysterious reaches of foreign lands guided by the inspired writing of Gregory Gourlay. With his previous work, Kindred Passage, we absorbed his vivid story of Africa and now, in Lost Prince, it is the Andes. Inca gold, Spanish armor and a contemporary adventure overlaid with one set over four hundred years before. A civilization conquered in colonial greed and the story within a story of the modern-day search for Inca gold and the truth. Again, Gourlay has written a brilliant novel filled with soaring landscapes, glaring bad guys and heroes vulnerable to their own doubts. Action and adventure, deceit, love, suspense and history rolled into a fast-paced fictional feast for the mind. More Gregory, more.
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