Eldorado

About the Book

El Dorado – The City of Gold

Monica Rodriguez returns to her beloved home town, Cusco, Peru, to start her first job after graduating from university.  Peter Martin a young geology student gets an assignment from his university to help study the ancient tunnels underneath the Incan capital city of Cusco, Peru.  The two become entangled in a much larger plot that threatens more than just their lives.  As the summer project unfolds Peter becomes intrigued with the history of the conquest of Peru and the life of Francisco Pizarro.  Peter is enthralled with the Incan Culture and the golden treasure amassed by Pizarro during the conquest.   Francisco Pizarro was caught in a dilemma between his love for a beautiful Peruvian Princess and choosing his desire for fame, power, and riches.  These riches become the subject of interest for Peter in his modern day thoughts and scientific study.

Peter meets this gorgeous young Peruvian girl, Monica, that is Assistant Deputy Director of Tourism for the City of Cusco his first day in town.  The two young people are the targets of an extreme radical terrorist group and become kidnapped and held for ransom.  During their unfortunate experience they become acquainted and learn more about each other’s world.  Peter realizes that the terrorists aren’t really after a rich American kid, but this very special Peruvian beauty.  He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it would prove to change the direction of his whole life.  This fictional history is really about their adventure together and if they can eventually overcome the differences between their modern day cultures that become entwined with the past.

About the Author

About the Author

L. Norman Shurtliff, (Les) was born in St. George, Utah and grew up on a small vegetable farm in Southern Nevada.  Les was able to serve a mission for the LDS Church in Argentina for two years where he learned the Spanish language and the culture of the wonderful people of South America.  He attended Brigham Young University and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1979.  Immediately after graduation from university the family moved to the small town of Taylor, B.C.  Les got a job at the local oil refinery as a chemist and has been an oil field scientist for the past twenty-eight years.

   After his mission nearly 30 years ago Les was able to visit and see first hand the magical land of the Incas.  Intrigued with the history and culture of South America, Les has visited this land of beauty and mystery many times since and continues to search this land for its many types of treasure.  The gold may now be gone or only found in museums, but there are still other kinds of treasure more important that can only be found in the wonderful people who live in this enchanted land.  The author has spent a lifetime studying and visiting South America and has a unique passion for this people and their legends.  The evidence of this passion is seen in the long hours and effort to write a novel which will bring to life the story of a “chosen and elect” people.

    Les and his wife, Christal have four sons and three daughters and continue to live in Taylor, B.C.     His real passion is to visit South America during the cold winter months in Canada and thus escape to a land where dreams really have come true.