The spirits of an Aztec warrior and a Spanish conquistador return to haunt their descendants in Hulen’s second paranormal thriller in a series.

Victoria Barrón was born in Mexico but was orphaned when she was 8 years old. Her paternal uncle, Elias, and his wife, Marta, adopted her and raised her in El Paso, Texas. Now, she’s an immigration attorney in that city with her own law firm called the Center for Help. In her office, she finds an envelope postmarked as coming from Zacatecas, Mexico; inside is a mysterious letter from a woman named Clarita Dávila, who claims that Victoria has a relative in Zacatecas whom the lawyer needs to see. Victoria soon travels to the small town, where a stranger named Eduardo Duarte meets her; he takes her to the Casa del Conquistador, where she’s introduced to the frail, elderly Doña Antonella Duarte—her maternal grandmother, whom she’s never met. She adopted Victoria’s mother, Estima, when she was small. Eduardo is also Antonella’s grandchild—the son of her oldest son—making him Victoria’s cousin. As the tale unwinds, the attorney learns that her grandmother has many secrets. Meanwhile, a group of Aztec descendants seeks to reclaim Aztec relics in the hands of collectors. One of these men is Martín Eztli, who’s subject to visions and capable of great violence. His hunt for the missing center discs of the Itztia Shield will lead him to Antonella. Hulen’s complex, mystical mystery offers multiple twists and turns as Antonella is kidnapped, Eduardo is infused with the spirit of a conquistador, and Victoria starts hearing the disembodied voice of her deceased mother. The revelation of a secret passageway beneath the Casa del Conquistador, and the appearance of an abundance of pivotal secondary characters, will keep readers on their toes, and graphically violent episodes add a bit of horror to the adventure. There’s also the charming, developing relationship between Eduardo and Victoria; while the story explores ancient grievances and contemporary avarice, the pair’s romantic possibilities offer intriguing pieces of Mesoamerican and conquistador history and culture.

An imaginative and engaging Mexico-set thriller.

Hulen makes an impressive debut with this enjoyable time-travel fantasy.

In the year 2181 B.C., Khara, a lesser-known ancient Egyptian princess about to ascend the throne in Memphis, Egypt, is whisked through time and space to 21st-century New Mexico. Landing in the desert just outside El Paso, she has 70 days to find her way back and fulfill her destiny—if that is what she chooses to do. When an understandably disoriented Khara is brought from the desert to the office of Victoria Barron, an immigration attorney, the fun begins. The acerbic, skeptical Victoria, determined to protect her strange new client, and the composed, occasionally imperious, mystical Khara are drawn to one another through their individual tragedies and loneliness. As one searches for the truth and the other for a way home, they become embroiled with a murderous black-market antiquities dealer, venture into the world of Native American legends (plus a dab of mescaline), and are distracted by potential romantic liaisons. Along the way, the two improbable companions forge a friendship that transcends the millennia that divide them. All this plays out against the beautifully detailed landscape of the Southwestern desert. A Wrinkle in Time for adults, this pleasantly engaging fantasy adventure has all the elements of a good novel: strong heroines, evil bad guys, romance, a journey to self-discovery, and the unknowable mysteries of the universe. The enduring lure of time travel forms the backbone of the story, while complexities in the numerous subplots will keep readers willing to suspend their disbelief. The story is marred only by incomplete copy editing that leaves a trail of errors as little stumbling blocks that momentarily disrupt the narrative’s flow. Missing words (“they had abandoned the wine something called tequila”) and usage errors (“The regretful on his face was genuine”) break the tempo but could easily be rectified.

An imaginative tale sprinkled with a bit of magic and leaving enough unanswered questions to keep readers pondering the possible consequences long after the last page has been turned.