The Puzzle of Piri Reis

A Tony Boudreaux Mystery

Other Mysteries by Kent Conwell:

The Riddle of Mystery Inn

THE PUZZLE
OF PIRI REIS

This title was previously published by Avalon Books; this version
has been reproduced from the Avalon book archive files.

And to my wife, Gayle.

I'd had enough excitement in the last four months to
last me four years.

Somehow, I managed to survive the claustrophobic
catacombs last summer beneath the St. Louis Cemetery
in New Orleans. A couple of months later, a torched hiphop club on Austin's Sixth Street tossed me head over
heels into a web of murder and assassinations involving
a crystal skull, a two-million-dollar diamond heist, and a
band of Mesoamerican fanatics who killed without remorse.

So naturally, the last thing I now wanted to deal with
was Ice Age civilizations, six-thousand-year-old maps,
Egyptian hieroglyphics that were not Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the malarkey-filled idea that mankind
came from a colony of misfits dumped on Earth by advanced civilizations from outer space.

The kooks were coming out of the woodwork, and I
was too exhausted to fool with them. All I wanted to
do was stay in Austin for a couple of months, handle a
few simple, non-threatening insurance or surveillance
gigs, and go home at night and relax.