Sealed Up: The Course of Fate - Book One

Hanson has lived in places that grew him – from a small Idaho farm town, a run-down neighborhood in St. Louis, and a middle-class southern California community to Sydney, Australia and Bucharest, Romania. His experiences are as varied as the places he’s lived.  He says, “I have a hopper of ‘reality’ including being a volunteer jail chaplain and flying with a U.S. presidential candidate in his small plane when an engine conked out.  And all of this is fodder for my writing.”
In Sealed Up, UCLA anthropologist Nathan Hill, is in a funk since his young wife’s death, and learns of staggering millennia-old chronicles sealed up somewhere in a Mesoamerica cliff. This bombshell rocks him out of his gloom, and he leads a clandestine expedition to uncover them. What are they? Who put them there? No one knows. But, self-absorbed televangelist Brother Luke, who funds the expedition, thinks he does. If he’s right, his power-hunger will have off-the-charts gratification.
Striking Audra Chang joins Nathan in his pursuit and brings her own shocking secret. As they struggle through a literal jungle of puzzles and dead ends, she finds herself falling in love with Nathan. Her secret, though, may make that a non-starter.
When a shaman with a thirst for human sacrifice, and a murderous Mexican drug lord with a mysterious connection to Brother Luke emerge, the expedition appears doomed. Yet Nathan is convinced that fate—or something—demands these inscrutable chronicles be unearthed.
And if they are . . . what shattering disruption will they unleash?

Intricately layered and remarkably researched, this enthralling suspense-driven and thought provoking tour de force begs a startling question: Could it happen?

My Review

I struck a book inspired by the old Indiana Jones movies with how it feels like historic fiction even though it is just straight up fiction.I found Sealed Up: The Course of Fate to have an interesting plot with a slow pace. I enjoyed the idea behind the book as well as the plot, however I felt like the author spent too much time developing the characters and this caused the pace of the book to move very slowly. Now on the flip side if you enjoy great character development with a slower pace then you will enjoy the book greatly. Overall while I enjoyed the book it did take me quite a while to finish the book because it is not the type that pulls you it and refuses to let you go instead it is more of a read before bed to help you calm down and fall asleep while still being interesting type of book.