Six months after uncovering a pharaoh's erased history beneath the Egyptian desert, the compass Amelia Fox inherited from her grandfather has gone quiet again, resting on its wooden stand at Foxglove Manor. Then, one ordinary evening, the needle stirs and swings southwest, toward Peru, toward a valley that has kept a five-hundred-year-old secret so completely that most historians assume it never existed at all.
With her best friend Theo Parker at her side, Amelia travels to Lima to meet Valentina Cruz, a fiercely dedicated young archaeologist who has spent three lonely years chasing a theory her colleagues dismiss as impossible: that an entire community once vanished by choice rather than by conquest, sealing themselves inside a hidden city to protect knowledge they refused to let a coming invasion destroy. Guided by Valentina, an elderly village elder named Mama Killa, and a mysterious woman known only as B, Amelia and Theo trek deep into the Andes, uncovering a threshold unlike anything they've faced before, one that doesn't test cleverness or courage alone, but the whole truth of who a person really is.
Waiting for them at the mountain's edge is someone from Amelia's past: the man once known only as the Collector, forty years into a search for redemption he isn't certain he deserves. As old wounds resurface and new choices demand to be made, Amelia and Valentina must each decide what they're willing to sacrifice for something larger than themselves, and what it truly means to protect a discovery rather than claim it.
The Lost City of the Andes is the third thrilling instalment in the Global Quest series, a story about community, courage, and the quiet, extraordinary power of choosing to stand together when it would be so much easier to stand apart. Amelia and Theo's journey deepens here in ways that will change everything they thought they understood about the compass, about legacy, and about the remarkable, patient network of people across the world who have spent generations keeping faith with secrets worth protecting.
For readers aged 10 to 14 who love mystery, heart, and adventures that ask more of their heroes than simple bravery alone.
Rowan Atlas is a primary school teacher with over 20 years of experience educating students across Australia and internationally. An avid traveler with a deep appreciation for diverse cultures and food, Rowan channeled his adventures into The Flavour Hunters Series. The books follow Pippa Henley and Pieter Dodorlein, two spirited adventures, as they explore the world while on tour with Pieters' orchestral parent. Each book drops them into a new city where they eat their way through real, existing restaurants and street-food stalls, chase down a piece of local history or legend tied to a dish, and stumble into a light mystery or challenge along the way Rowan hopes the series gives young readers a love of adventure, curiosity, and trying something new.
