A Tourist In The Yucatan [Paperback]

James McNay Brumfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2004

Journey to the sun washed resort of Cancun and follow a young American couple, Jack and Josephine Phillips, on an adventure into the jungles of Mexico's Yucat n Peninsula. Adventure turns to terror when Josephine disappears and Jack finds himself on the run from mysterious assassins, the Mexican Federales, and possibly even his own government. The Phillips have unwittingly become entangled in the Mexican underworld, a complicated web that stretches from the Carribean coast line of Quintana Roo to the upper reaches of the United States Government. In a land where the line between the law and the outlaw is blurred, can Jack survive long enough to solve the mystery of his wife's disappearance? A Tourist in the Yucat n is a story that will keep you turning pages well into the night. Mexico's brilliant beaches, historic colonial cities, and ancient Mayan ruins hidden deep in the jungle, provide the back drop for this fast paced adventure/thriller.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A gritty and absorbing political thriller set in an exotic location." -- Steve Bridger, Publisher/Editor, Mexicanwave.com, Awarded

"A page turning thriller steeped in the mystery of the Mayan Yucatán." -- Bruce Conord — Co-author of the Adventure Guide to the Yucatán, Cancún & Cozumel

From the Author

The story behind the story.

In 1987, my wife and I honeymooned on the Yucatan. We spent two months touring on the cheap. On the bus to Chichen Itza we met a fellow gringo who was traveling solo. He was in his thirties, handsome, spoke fluent Spanish, and was knowledgeable about both ancient and modern Mexico. We hit it off with this man and the three of us spent two weeks touring the Yucatan outback together. He convinced us to go places we never would have ventured to on our own and opened up a new world to us. At the end of our time together we said our good byes with hopes that we could get together in the future. Once back home, my wife wrote our new friend a number of times but he never responded. This got me to wondering who this fellow was. As I reflected back on our trip, I recalled some strange things about the man. For example, he promised to pay for a car rental if I would put it on my credit card. He did pay me in cash, but I thought it was odd he did not have a credit card, or maybe he did not want the car in his name. This got the wheels of my imagination turning, and was the genesis of "A Tourist in the Yucatan."

The settings in the book are real places. I also have a strong interest in the ancient Mayans, and while not an expert, I did try to reflect current scientific knowledge.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tres Picos Press (May 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974530905
• ISBN-13: 978-0974530901
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James McNay Brumfield resides on a ranch near the old mission town of San Juan Bautista in central California and divides his time between writing, training horses and mules, and working as a professional packer and mountain guide for Rock Creek Pack Station located in the Eastern Sierras. He has guided trips for over 25 years, and has traveled the High Sierra back country from Sonora Pass in the north, to the Forks of the Kern in the south--a distance of over 300 miles as the crow flies.

Brumfield is also five time World Champion Packer at Bishop Mule days and a member of numerous World Champion pack teams. In 2002 he trained and rode World Champion Green Cow Working Mule, Lil' Joe, and in 2007 Side Kicks Hard Luck.

Jim's mountain heritage runs deep. He is a 6th generation California, a direct descendent of Captain John Jordan who led a wagon train of emigrants to California from Brazos Texas in 1850. Captain Jordan also blazed one of the early trails across the High Sierra, the Jordan trail, and was probably the first white man to see a Golden Trout. John Jordan drowned in the Kern River in 1862.

Brumfield is the author of the thriller/adventure "A Tourist in the Yucatan" which grew out of his extended trips to Mexico to explore the ruin sites, and the modern day western "Across the High Lonesome" based on his 25 years working as a wilderness guide and packer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

127 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Predictable and Poorly Written, September 25, 2004

By 

Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Tourist In The Yucatan (Paperback)

[...] I read "A Tourist in the Yucatan" based on Amazon's rave 5-star reviews. I could hardly have been more disappointed. I'll give credit for an interesting setting and a premise that may have worked, had Brumfield researched the ancient Mayan culture in more depth, and tied the mysteries of the Mayans into a modern day thriller. Unfortunately, "Tourist" augured into a typical - though more poorly conceived - government conspiracy fantasy featuring a plastic cast of characters and numbingly banal plot. Jack Phillips, around whom the story revolves, is insufferably whiny and as uninspiring a protagonist as I've encountered. This plot depends upon the reader's belief that a team from the US DEA has gone undercover in Mexico as drug dealers. It must never have occurred to the author that the DEA may consider using Latinos in these roles; the southern Cal frat-boy agents assigned south-of-the-border were about as inconspicuous in Mexico as Shaquille O'Neal at a Ku Klux Klan rally. The dialogue was consistently lame ("What had happened was not fair, but life was not fair.") But much of the awkward prose and flat dialogue could have been overlooked were it not exacerbated by the most atrocious editing I have ever seen in a published work. [...]

At one point, one of the James Bond-type undercover guys, while en route to the final encounter with the bad guys, says to Phillips, "I'm just making this up as I go along." That pretty much sums up "A Tourist in the Yucatan". [...]

49 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Grammar/Spelling errors in a mass-produced book?? Are you serious??, August 4, 2009

By 

N. Lo "Penske" (Penske) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Tourist In The Yucatan (Paperback)

This book is a first for me. I've read quite a few books, and this is the absolute first one that has simple spelling and grammar errors. It's as if the publisher/editor/author never bothered to read this over before deciding to mass-produce it. I'm not a grammar snob by any means, but if your job is to write, you shouldn't be making "your/you're" mistakes. It's not as if it occurs just once either. I noticed five errors in the first 30 pages. It's distracting and really prevented me from enjoying it.

For example, the first sentence of chapter 5 is "The Jack, Jo and Steve Potter departed the bus at Chichen Itza's main entrance and grabbed one of the many taxis competing for their pesos.". Jack, Jo, and Steve Potter are people! Why is there a "the" in the beginning of the sentence??

This author makes money off writing. He clearly is failing and needs to rethink his career. Nobody pays for a driving instructor that doesn't know how to park, right?

WASTE OF TIME.

22 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Life is too short for mediocre, November 21, 2008

By 

Jennifer Lichtenfeld (Silver Spring, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Tourist In The Yucatan (Paperback)

A man is on a boat in Mexico waiting for a drug deal to go down. The drug deal goes bad and he goes on the lam. Is he a bad guy or working undercover?

A husband and wife are on a vacation in Mexico rekindling their marriage. They hope to connect with their friend who is an archeologist but they find themselves in the middle of a misunderstanding about drugs and ancient Mayan artifacts. Will they kill or be killed?

Basically, this plot has been done a million times and is not original. But even worse, the writing is bland and does not keep the story moving. It took me FOREVER to plod through this thin paperback novel. It's fine for a beach read, but there are other books out there in this genre that are much, much better.