Aztec Revenge

by Gary Jennings Book 6 in the Aztec series.

First published 2012

Amazon

3.9(296)

Forty-eight years after the fall of Tenochtitlan, Juan survives on the margins of New Spain as a beggar, horse handler and thief. His mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry denies him secure status, yet his ability with horses and weapons allows him to move between roads, estates and outlaw bands. After killing a man who abuses a horse, he adopts the appearance of a wealthy caballero and enters the society that once treated him as disposable.

Martín Cortés, known as El Mestizo and born to Hernán Cortés and La Malinche, understands that Juan’s unknown lineage may carry political significance. A mystery involving bloodline, property and the finest horses in the colony draws Juan towards people who can expose both his disguise and his origins. The novel uses the picaresque adventures of a highwayman to examine caste, inheritance and survival in the first half-century of New Spain.