Neil Flambé and the Aztec Abductions Book Review by Connor

Neil Flambé and the Aztec Abductions is a fiction novel by Kevin Sylvester that takes place in Mexico, present day, starring a chef and his assistant, a business woman, a detective, and a retired chef that acts as a mentor. I highly recommend the Neil Flambé books, this one was the second in the series, the first one is the Marco Polo Murders, the third one is the Crusader’s Curse, and the fourth one is The Tokyo Treasures.

    In my novel, the conflict is between the main character, Neil Flambé, and a group of kidnappers who live in Mexico City. It takes place all over Mexico City, from dumpsters to hotels, to fancy kitchen designed for “Cooking Battles”. The main character’s names are Neil, the chef, Larry, his assistant, Isabelle, a business woman in a perfume company, Angel, who’s a retired chef, and Nakaruma, a detective. The book is fairly fast paced book, events happen one after another quickly, there are breaks which allow for the characters to predict what’s going to happen next, like one where they theorize that they take Isabelle and make a deal saying if you make it to the finals and loose, we’ll give you Isabelle back, just to make a bet on the person who is Neil’s opponent in the Finals, and earn money.

The plot’s simple, it usually goes from scenes looking for Isabelle, to dealing with the upcoming cooking battle, then they find another clue about where to find Isabelle, then they look again, then they predict what’s going to happen next, then there’s a cooking battle, then the cycle repeats. All the characters have specific character traits that contribute to the story, for example, Neil has an excellent sense of smell, that helped him trace Isabelle down to the subway when she was first kidnapped. The conflict is character vs self, and character vs character, because it’s Neil against the kidnappers, and Neil having to deal with the decision of loosing his friend, or his dreams.

I really enjoyed the book, it’s fun, and has funny moments and always keeps you guessing, as the author tries to do, we know that because the characters are telling you possibilities of what might happen fairly often. I liked it because the characters are likeable, and the plot is somewhat believable, and it’s not easy mentally, or physically for any of the characters, like having to climb up and down garbage hills in huge dumps, and having one of your best friends kidnapped, and having to loose your job for her to stay alive. The author was successful in presenting the central idea of the book to the reader, it’s about which is more important friends or dreams, or loyalty or liberty. The book was memorable for it dealing with a subject that deep and still making it kid friendly. This book is a great read that is worth your time, and it’s not too long or short either, and it makes you question which do you value more, loyalty or liberty, and if liberty, at who’s expense, especially in this book.