The Darkest Jungle

A full 60 years before American engineers completed the Panama Canal, the U.S. Navy sent an ill-fated surveying expedition to the isthmus. Led by a remarkable but forgotten lieutenant named Isaac Strain, the party endured starvation, disease from tropical parasites, and terrible suffering for three months before being rescued. Todd Balf's marvelous research pieces together this little-known tale, and his writing is rich with drama and well-drawn characters. Scott Brick's narration is perfectly paced. He's so comfortable with the text that the listener can almost feel the humidity of the jungle. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine


This is the sort of book for which abridgments were created. Balf's account of the first U.S. expedition to find a canal route through Panama seems overlong even in this abbreviated version. Not that it doesn't contain plenty of adventure, as the twenty-seven-member team endures extremes of hardship and peril. It also contains plenty of padding. Or maybe the effect comes from Ray Childs's detached reading. Otherwise, Childs possesses a pleasant radio announcer's baritone, which he employs with smooth, expressive melodies. But he comes to life only when quoting original documents, which give him the opportunity to invest the bites with the personalities of the characters. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine