Walt’s wife and partner, Jocelyn Gaines, is with the expedition and it is her practical talent that keeps much of the daily life flowing easily. The expedition is filled with the usual students and a last minute replacement, Diane Montrose.

The time has come to close the site down, and the minister lets Walt know that he has withdrawn their guards because of unrest with an anti-government guerilla group. The morning they are to leave an alternator is sabotaged and they fall further and further behind as rains turn the road into a muddy mess. Walt must make a choice to press forward or return to the camp and is pressured by Diane and Jocelyn to keep going.

Moments later, the convoy is stopped by what appear to be guerillas and Walt negotiates the exchange of all their valuables for their lives. The government permits him to take some items out to study and then to return. He has documents for these but when his trunk is ransacked, the guerillas find many artifacts that are not included on the government list, all of which Walt claims he has no knowledge.

In the ensuing debacle shots are fired and Jocelyn is killed. This story begins two years following her death and involves the steps her three adult sons, Will, Clancy and Tom, take to find out what really happened - and why - in that small Central American country.

What provided the impetus for their search was when Walt wrote them that he has retired from the university, sold their home and moved to California, continuing to stonewall them, communicating rarely, and then by e-mail.

The sons start their investigation in California and find Walt living with a much younger woman and still refusing to discuss the incident.

Freedman has superimposed an intricate suspense plot over the weave of a shattered family that had once been close. The characters are unevenly developed, and for a while the reader can believe that is deliberate. The dialogue is okay but not inspiring.

What is very special about the book though is what the extensive research done in Central America shows, but not in an overwhelming way. It is certainly not an informational guide for Mayan ruins tourists.

The resolution is stilted and contrived; ultimately, there are few surprises as the foreshadowing takes care of that. But still Fallen Idols is a very enjoyable read, and just enough off the pace of the usual mystery that it certainly could fit in your vacation bag.

--Thea Davis