If you are looking for action and treachery deep within the Amazon rainforest, Maclean delivers, as a ragtag group of deceivers search for the Lost City of Gold.
No one is what they seem.
John Hamilton arrives in the dirty Brazilian shantytown with a reputation - they say he knows the location of the fabled ruin known as the lost city of the Moto Grosso, still filled with golden riches. Hiller calls himself a newspaperman, and Serrano a treasure hunter, who convince him the media magnate and adventurer Joshua Stone will fund a trip into the Planalto de Moto Grosso - complete with a Sikorsky helicopter airlifting a hovercraft into the jungle. All for the news story and history books, of course. The men meet Stone in Brasilia, along with his girlfriend, a photographer, and managing partner, and agree on Hamilton's plan. He is the one who knows the Indian dialects, indeed, has lived with the natives. Hamilton will be in charge and takes complete control as they move in stages up the Rio da Morte, flowing nearly five miles wide, to where the hovercraft awaits.
Tensions break quickly and there is a shootout in the helicopter, a crash on the banks of a cannibalistic native village, an escape from deadly blowdarts, intense rapids and waterfalls, attack from the Horenas (a tribe even the cannibals fear as living death), wild jungle animals and spiders that can jump a yard, swampland and quicksand.
Yes, it is all thrown in there to great effect. They end up trekking on foot, how the hell are they going to get out of there?
MacLean saves the big reveal for the end, where we discover that no one is what they seem, and many do not make it out alive. There is current of tension throughout, beginning with the prologue where many years ago, two top Nazi SS officers sabotage the raid of gold pieces from a Greek monastery and one disappears with the loot. Brazil being a known refuge for German aristocrats after the war, might have something to do with this nightmare journey.
Our hero is Hamilton - tall, broad shouldered, with a keen eye - he stays one step ahead of them all, much to the chagrin of Stone - it has been many years since anyone has commanded him like that. A hunter, a seeker, and a deceiver who planted the photographic proof that backed up the whole endeavour, not to mention casually tossing around gold coins for good measure.
As a reader looking for action, this gave excitement I couldn't put down. There was no drawn out political machinations or romantic subplot, just pure adventure. I found this filled with fully formed characters given just the right amount of mystery. As fantastic as it all seems, it's all believable.
I am a fan of Alistair MacLean, and this was one of my favourites. If you are going to read a novel titled River of Death, your expectations will be fulfilled.
This was made into a 1989 film starring B-action star Michael Dudikoff, directed by David Carver, whose work on Roger Corman films includes Big Bad Mama, and Chuck Norris hits. Shot during a cultural boycott in South Africa, it hoped viewers of lush jungle scenery could be distracted from everything else. It didn't work.
1981 / Tradeback / 215 pages
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