Missing in Machu Picchu

A group of American women decide to get over their misadventures in online dating by embarking on an exclusive hike of the Inca Trail in Machu Picchu, Peru, geared for Ivy League graduates and run by the charismatic and enigmatic Rodrigo. Of course the women don't know that their tour leader is a crazed sadist bent on stealing their money and seducing them into sacrifices he believes will make his depraved dreams come true. Vel%C3%A1stegui may have enormous respect for Incan culture and complicated feelings about the influx of tourists to Peru, but that does not translate into an enjoyable novel. Her characters are too broadly drawn and intensely dislikable. Rodrigo is a cartoonish villain, his henchmen equally shallow, and the American women screeching caricatures.