Publisher's Weekly Review
Forensics anthropologist Gideon Oliver's compelling 14th adventure (after 2006's Unnatural Selection) involves a hot, humid and decidedly deadly expedition up the Amazon River with his friends Phil Boyajian, who heads a budget travel agency, and FBI agent John Lau. While Phil rates the boat's amenities, Gideon and John marvel at the natural wonders. But before long, they pick up on tension among the other passengers, who include world-famous ethnobotanist Arden Scofield and two of his colleagues-a ghostwriter and a bug researcher-plus a mysterious guide known only as Cisco. As the travelers go deep into the jungle, fearful of the rarely seen Chayacuro headhunters, Gideon and his pals find themselves in the middle of a decades-old blood feud, along with drug smuggling, greed and murder. Edgar-winner Elkins delivers fascinating descriptions of the Amazon and a satisfying denouement, courtesy of Gideon's characteristically astute analysis of human remains. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver steams down the Amazon and into intrigue, violence and unbearable humidity. Thirty years after Arden Scofield abandoned his two grad-school friends to the poisoned darts of Peru's Chayacuro tribe and scrambled off with the rubber-tree seeds that would make his fortune, Professor Scofield is sitting pretty. He's a highly regarded ethnobotanist, a nationally known author and a perennial leader of research expeditions in the Amazon basin. His companions on this trip include his junior colleague Maggie Gray, his hapless student Tim Loeffler, his ghostwriter Mel Pulaski, Department of Agriculture ethnoentomologist Duayne V. Osterhout and a trio of nonprofessional passengers: raffish tour guide Phil Boyajian and his friends John Lau of the FBI and Gideon Oliver, the "Skeleton Detective" (Unnatural Selection, 2006, etc.). Unbeknownst to Gideon, he and his buddies aren't the only unofficial cargo; Scofield has bribed Capt. Vargas to smuggle a large quantity of coca paste in the coffee beans. Except for the oppressive weather, some huge bugs that delight Osterhout and disgust everyone else, not to mention the odd spear tossed through a window, all goes well, if sluggishly, until Gideon's wakened by a splash in the night and finds two of his shipmates missing and a third thrashing in the river. Are the perps avenging local tribesmen, territorial drug lords or someone closer to home? More dank travelogue than mystery, though Gideon manages a nice display of erudite deduction toward the end. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Elkins, who has won the Edgar Award for his Gideon Oliver series, trots out forensic anthropology professor Oliver for another adventure, this time along the Amazon River. Elkins totally avoids the sin of sloth represented by some mystery writers who habitually underresearch their topics. Elkins always presents a rich buffet of fascinating scientific facts, and this time his table overflows with information about the Amazon's wildlife and, even more intriguingly, its plant life, long used by natives as medicine and now studied by medical ethnobotanists. Elkins, generous with background, is a bit too generous with setup: by the time Professor Oliver and the research botanists actually get to the Amazon, readers may be tired of the overly long, and-then-there-were-none-style introductions to each character. Once underway on the Amazon, however, things quickly pick up, as a shrunken head, carried by a spear, lands on deck, and Oliver's detective skills are called into play when one of the botanists is murdered. Learned and entertaining. --Connie Fletcher Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
For forensics professor Gideon Oliver, on an Amazon riverboat expedition in his 13th case, humans may prove to be more dangerous than a jungle full of predators. From Edgar Award winner Elkins (Unnatural Selection). Elkins lives in Washington. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
