Serpent

Serpent is the first book in the NUMA Files series of books. This one was co-written by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. It was published in 1999.

The main plot is about a group of men who call themselves “The Brotherhood”. They have ties to a 15th-century religious order. The group has attempted to hide and destroy all evidence of pre-Columbian contact between the New and Old Worlds. It's a convoluted tale about the Spanish mafia stretching from Christopher Columbus to the Mayan times.

It's a formulaic tale. A disastrous historical event moves onto modern times. Here we get a villain doing something bad while the protagonists coincidently happen to be close by. Discoveries lead to more action culminating in a neatly wrapped up ending.

I got half way though it before I bailed out. Meh.