The Jaguar Stones Series

A hurricane is brewing in the jungles of the Maya, and the ancient Death Lords are on the warpath. Across the world in Venice, hanging out with his friend Nasty (Anastasia) Smith-Jones, Max Murphy thinks he is safe from their clutches. But when a rogue octopus pulls him off his gondola and tries to drag him down to the underworld, Max realizes that the Death Lords have not finished with him yet.

Soon Max is back in Central America and reunited with the only ones who can help him in his battle—Lola and the howler monkeys Lord 6-Dog and Lady Coco. Once again it’s up to the four of them to save the world. With the hurricane about to hit land, Max and Lola embark on a one-way journey to danger down the blighted Monkey River. Torn between rescuing themselves and rescuing one of the last wild jaguars of the Monkey River region, Max and Lola find themselves drawn into an ever more bizarre series of tests, culminating in a terrifying ballgame that they can never win.

While everyone else is panicking about the so-called end of the Maya calendar, fourteen-year-old Max Murphy has his own problems. He owes a favor to the ancient Maya Lords of Death and now they’ve called it in. Max has just seven days to bring the long-lost Yellow Jaguar to Xibalba, the cold and watery Maya underworld.

Accompanied by his Maya friend Lola, and Lord 6-Dog and Lady Coco—currently inhabiting the bodies of two howler monkeys—Max travels to Spain, where he gets arrested for murder, battles an army of headless phantoms, wakes up in his own coffin, and gate-crashes the wedding of the century . . . which features human sacrifice instead of the usual disco.

When his friends go missing in action, Max must run for his life with a pack of hellhounds on his heels. But can Max and Lola deliver the missing Jaguar Stone before the sun sets on their world one last time?

“As I see it,” said Max, “all that stands between humankind and the end of the world is two talking monkeys, a crazy archaeologist covered in red paint, and a couple of kids with blowguns. Am I right?”
 
Fourteen-year-old Max Murphy, video-gamer extraordinaire, is furious when his archaeologist parents cancel the family vacation to go on a dig in Central America. But things go from bad to worse when Max is summoned to join them, only to discover that his parents have vanished. With the help of Lola, a fast-talking, quick-thinking Maya girl, Max embarks on a quest to find out just what’s going on. Soon Max and Lola are running for their lives in the perilous rainforest, as they unlock ancient secrets, meet mysterious strangers, and begin to understand that, in San Xavier, nothing is ever as it seems.
            Fate has delivered a challenge of epic proportions to Max Murphy. But can a teen whose biggest talent is for video games rescue his parents from the Maya Underworld and save himself from the villainous Lords of Death?