MANDA SCOTT – The Crystal Skull. Delacorte Press, hardcover, April 2008. Paperback reprint: Bantam Books, February 2009. UK edition: Transworld, January 2008.

   According to Mayan lore, the world will end on 21/12/2012. The only salvation for humanity lies in the activation of 12 crystal skulls entrusted to the protection of a network of keepers.

   Stella Cody O’Connor, a descendant of Cedric Owens, the keeper of the ninth skull, who was murdered in 1599 after hiding the skull from the dark forces who would destroy it, with the help of her husband, Kit, retrieves the skull from a cave in which it has been buried.

   This is, however, only the beginning of her task, and the novel traces, with mounting tension, Owens’ odyssey in the past and Stella’s present-day struggle to protect the sacred skull.

   Owens’ odyssey takes him to the New World, where the powers of the Skull are revealed to him. The Skull is no inanimate object, the mute subject of the quest. Its keeper bonds with it, and it is that spiritual and emotional bond that is, perhaps, the most distinctive quality of this intelligent thriller, giving it an unusual and moving resonance.

         Bibliographic data [expanded from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin] —

SCOTT, MANDA (Catriona).

      The Dr. Kellen Stewart series —

   Hen’s Teeth. Women’s Press, UK, pb, 1996; Bantam, US, 1999.

   Night Mares. Headline Press, UK, hc, 1998; Bantam, 1999.
   Stronger Than Death. Headline, UK, hc, 1999; Bantam, 2000.

Note: The series is set in Glasgow, Scotland, and environs. Dr. Stewart is a doctor, a therapist and a lesbian, and in various ways she’s personally involved with each of the cases of murder she works on.

       Crime/mystery novels —

   No Good Deed. Headline, UK, 2001; Bantam, US, 2002. [Nominated for an Edgar, 2003.]

   The Crystal Skull. Transworld, UK, 2008; Delacorte, US, 2008.