Just when you thought there were no new angles on action/adventure fiction, along comes Shades of Truth, by J. K. Scott of Fountain Hills.

A page-turner of romance and intrigue that is reminiscent of the thrills of Indiana Jones, Romancing the Stone and The DaVinci Code, Scott has penned a novel that, from the first page, feels like it’s unfolding on the big screen.

The year is 2011, and Tyler Moore of Scottsdale is given a secret assignment to uncover the credibility of documentation that indicates according to the Mayan calendar, that Dec. 21, 2012, is the date when civilization on Earth will come to an end.

With the help of ancient-civilizations enthusiast Kate Ryan, Moore plunges into a terrifying reality involving cataclysmic prophecies and international panic – a reality that could quite literally mean the end of the human race and the end of the world.

A sales executive in the technology industry for more than two decades, J.K. Scott says, “Tyler Moore’s story is ultimately a positive take on the spirit and resilience of humanity; but it also points out that we have not risen above warfare, which has a direct effect on our demise as a species… Shades of Truth raises the important questions we must ask ourselves if we plan to survive on this planet.”

Scott, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University and attended the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, School of Consciousness and Transformation, retired early from the technology field and has been a concierge at a Scottsdale Marriott resort for several years.

Working at the Digital Corp. in San Francisco, Calif., in the early 1990s, Scott’s imagination was triggered while working with high security accounts for clients.

Thus, when Digital Corp. started downsizing in the mid-90s, she decided to take the early retirement.

“I decided to write a book,” she recalls.

She relocated to Arizona in December of 1998 to be closer to her family.

After a year of writing, while thoroughly researching the Sonoran cultures and Mayan history and legends, she wrote Shades of Truth.

The novel was originally released in October of 2007, but was recalled because of an editing error. But Scott felt there was a fateful reason the novel was published too early, before it was ready.

Her only sibling -- her brother Darrell -- with whom she was very close, got to read and enjoy the first printing.

“It was meant to be,” she recalls with emotion, “because it was important that this get published so that I had a hard copy for Darrell to read and enjoy. And he died 10 weeks after the book came out.”

Shades of Truth, which has received the Publisher’s Choice and Editor’s Choice awards, is available at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com, and is a special selection book at Barnes and Noble at 90th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

Scott has the manuscript for a second novel completed and is working on her third.

She will be a guest on Good Day Arizona on Channel 3 TV Friday, June 27, at 11 a.m.

For more information about J.K. Scott or Shades of Truth, visit www.authorjkscott.com.