Author Spotlight - Cindy Hull
Dr. Cindy L. Hull is an anthropologist who lives in Traverse City, Michigan. She first became interested in the Yucatán during a study abroad program through Grand Valley State University in 1971. Her husband (Bo) was in the same program and they both fell in love with the peninsula, enchanted by both the archaeology and the traditional villages with the thatch houses and women and men in vestido. She earned her PhD in anthropology from Wayne State University in 1980 and lived in Yaxkukul for a year, returning often for visits. All three of their children have lived in Yaxkukul during at least one research season or sabbatical, and they now visit families they have known for forty years. Her experiences during this time provided the material for her first book, Katun: A Twenty Year Journey with the Maya, published in 2004.
Once retired, she turned to writing mysteries. Human Sacrifice, takes place at Uxmal and Mérida. “How many anthropologists usually die at your conferences?” This is the question Detective Roberto Salinas asks Dr. Claire Aguila (an anthropologist, of course0 after two mysterious deaths at a gathering of Maya scholars in Mérida. When a souvenir vendor in a nearby town is murdered, the faculty members of the newly formed Keane College Mayanist Program find themselves under scrutiny from Mexican authorities and U.S. Customs agents. Professor Claire Aguila becomes a reluctant police collaborator as she confronts the possibility that someone close to her might be a murderer. Claire’s knowledge of Maya culture unites her with Detective Salinas in the investigation; however, a long-ago romance with the detective complicates things, forcing Claire’s colleagues to question her loyalties.
“This whodunit is anything but typical. Rich in Mayan culture, Human Sacrifice whisks you away to another land where suspects are many and murder abounds.” Mary K Eastman, Author of Return to Sleeping Bear
Then came her second book, Culture Shock, the second mystery in the Claire Aguila series but also a stand-alone novel. “I want him out of my business and out of my life.” When Barbara Vogel confided this to her friends in The Havens, a Florida retirement community, no one suspected that she would soon be murdered in her home. And that days later, a Hispanic laborer would be found dead with Barbara’s gun and jewelry in his possession. When Claire Aguila and her daughter arrive in The Havens to visit Claire’s parents, they find that her father is a possible suspect in the Vogel murder. The family drama intensifies when Mexican Detective Roberto Salinas and Madge Carmichael arrive on the scene.
“Spot on characters, the minutiae and paranoia of the gated lifestyle, and the racial profiling of The Havens’ Mexican workforce make this whodunit an especially enjoyable mystery.” Robert Downes, author, Windigo Moon, The Wolf and The Willow.
Cindy is currently working on a third book in this series, Rites of Passage, which brings her major characters, back to Mérida and the Yucatán. And we hear - spoiler alert - that the Mérida English Library itself makes an appearance in this latest adventure!
Human Sacrifice and Culture Shock are part of the library’s permanent lending collection.
