Are you in the mood for historical fantasy that isn't the same old, same old? A mystical murder mystery where magic is vital to both the crime and the solution? A tense political look at a system that isn't the same old European kingdom or Roman Empire model? And finally, a book where both the fate of the world and the fate of a brother are given the same weight.

Like the above hints, there's a lot going on in this first novel involving the High Priest of the Dead Acatl, and his attempts to unravel a mystery involving the kidnapping of a priestess to save his brother from a charge of murder pushed by the High Priest of Tlaltoc. The character starts out with a deep loathing of politics, and a divided family situation that rings far too true no matter what era you're speaking of. Along the way he has to train a student of noble blood and deal with gods that are a little too present and willing to intervene. And it leads into places that neither the characters or the reader expects.

It starts right in the middle of the action(a ceremony to help a dead noble get to his destination after death) and never slows down. You're dumped into pre contact Tenochtitlan and expected to catch up. There are few info dumps, mainly involving who the gods are, but most of the time the story expects you to follow along in a world that will be alien to most of its readers. Fortunately, the writing is clear, the world researched to the best of her ability, and the characters are drawn with understandable motivations. If tending to use different means than most fantasy works to follow those motivations. There are a few matter of fact mentions of human sacrifice, along with animal sacrifice and a few looks at bodies in various states of death and decompisition. And the monsters and mystical opponents are described in just enough detail to fire the imagination about what you're not seeing.

For a gaming audience, there is a lot to take in from this. Not only an unfamiliar religion and monsters, a magic system that is nowhere close to the usual Vancian or spell point ones and most of the characters are drawn in enough detail and with differing motivations that you can use them to bring some of your own work to life.

It's not perfect, and a fair bit involving Nahuatl culture has been changed to make it easier to read for an English speaking audience(names, but also phrases). But it is one that I recommend for getting a glimpse of a world that doesn't exist anymore and how it worked past the sensationalism of human sacrifice . The rest of the series delves deeper into both the politics and the religion, but the book is a perfectly fine stand alone.