Peru, 1532: Aftermath of Conquest and the Looming Threat to the Chosen Women
Peru, 1532. Flames crackle and screams ring out as a renegade band of conquistadors bring rape and destruction to a remote mountain village and the Chosen Women cloistered nearby. When the armour-clad foreigners ride away, they leave few survivors and those few know that they are still in danger – this time from Inca law and tradition which dictate that, if violated. the Chosen Women – known in modern times as Sun Virgins – will be killed. And, depending on the circumstances and the whim of the Inca, the same fate can apply to their families and even their villages. And this area and its people, the Chachapoya, have only recently been conquered by the Inca after decades of fierce resistance.
A village youth is chosen to take their case to the Inca and gets caught up in the politics and violence of the Spanish take-over of the Land of the Four Directions while the other survivors head out in the one direction that offers a chance of escape – into the unknown, to build a life for themselves somewhere new – somewhere far from all they’ve ever known, deep in the Amazon jungle. But to do that they have to survive against all the jungle and its mighty rivers can throw at them, including the poisoned darts of the inhabitants, whose land they are invading.
What inspired you to write the book?
I had long been fascinated by ancient history, but in the 1980’s two things came together. While in college in Oxford, I found a book on the history of the three best-known ancient cultures of the Americas, including the Inca. And soon after that, I saw a TV series, which had a book linked to it, on the current social and political situation in Peru. These, along with other sources of information, got me thinking.
What if the current president of Peru got the chance to pursue his dream of building a new city in the Amazon? How would he finance it? What would the locals feel about it, and what would they do about it? (Then, as now, the area was notorious for cocaine production.) And what if the rumours were true that the Spanish did not, in fact, find and execute the last Inca? (The title was actually that of the king, rather than of the people, as it’s used today.)
The Inca’s Great Escape: Unveiling the Hidden Amazonian Link
What if the Inca escaped from Espiritu Pampa before the Conquistadors got there and the man they killed was an imposter – a willing sacrifice to the greater good, as the natives saw it? Where would the true Inca have gone? What would have happened to him and those with him? Surely, despite historians being resolutely unwilling to accept the idea, the mountain peoples must have had contact, even traded, with the people of the rain forest – the Amazon? (As it turned out, there was research going on at the time, though only in its early stages, that would prove this to be true.)
The upshot, in my mind, was a pair of linked stories, the first a thriller set in the modern era – the 1980’s – and the second, The Sweat of The Sun, set in the 16th century. They would be linked by location: independent stories but each giving context to the other.
What is your target audience for the book?
The inspirations, in terms of fiction, for this book and its companion title, They Wait In Silence, were Wilbur Smith’s The Sunbird, James Khan’s Timefall and the Tom Selleck movie High Road To China. The Sweat of The Sun is an adventure story, set in a historical context, so is aimed at readers of historical fiction as well as those of classic adventures like those of Wilbur Smith and Clive Cussler and anyone who enjoys Indiana Jones and similar movies.
What are your goals for the book?
My aim for the book was primarily to entertain, of course, but beyond that, to encourage people to think for themselves. Historians are not always right, as has been proved time and again. Mysteries remain all over the world, from both modern and ancient times. Regurgitating what has been written before without thinking about it or checking the “facts” does nothing to progress our knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Knowledge is only expanded by those brave enough to go out and find the truth, regardless of establishment dogma.
And something more about yourself.
I was raised in a farming family from Northamptonshire, England and was set to follow that path until an opportunity presented itself to change direction. It took determination and hard work, but I eventually became a professional scientist – hence attending the college in Oxford where I found the history book that set me on the road to writing The Sweat of The Sun and its companion titles. (Yes, there are now more than one. The small-press publisher, now sadly defunct, who took on the first of the set, They Wait In Silence, and planned to continue with The Sweat of The Sun, suggested I should also write a sequel to the first book, another contemporary thriller.)
I continued as a scientist until circumstances again intervened. I contracted ME, which meant I could no longer work reliably in the laboratory and had to take early retirement. So now, my wife is stuck with me at home and writing has become the pursuit that keeps me occupied and sane. I am currently working on a crime-fiction series that has found some degree of success, the DS Peter Gayle series, written under the pseudonym of Jack Slater. Book 15 of the series, No Limit To Evil, came out in June 2024.
Click here for my Amazon link, here for my , or here to find me on Facebook .
Thank you for reading.
