Black Pearl

September 1, 2013
Adventurer Richard Mariner battles terrorists and forbidding natural elements in his quest for fortune in a land that time forgot. Back in 1973, Mizuki Yukawa, of the Yakimoto Freshwater Pearl Company, died mysteriously in the jungles of Benin La Bas in central Africa. Decades have passed, erasing all trace of the young woman and her boss, Dr. Koizumi, who was beheaded. Indigenous fauna have died out or been killed by rebels. Now, in 2013, months of torrential rains wash the skull of Koizumi out of the region, along with enough of the invaluable oysters unique to the region to pique interest in a new expedition. At the forefront are Richard and his wife, Robin, as well as a pair of Russian business partners, Maximilian Asov and Felix Makarov, and their team of Russian mercenary muscle. Max's daring daughter Anastasia, who first brought him evidence of the priceless resource, is along as well. Working with the country's president, Julius Chaka, they follow Koizumi's maps, underestimating the danger posed by a regiment of locals who have seized the region, a divider between Benin La Bas and its unfriendly neighbors. Small wonder that Chaka was less than forthcoming. Anastasia's recklessness, born of her damaged relationship with Max, makes matters even worse when the group is trapped and endangered. Mariner's 19th adventure, revisiting many characters and places from his 17th (Dark Heart, 2012, etc.), sometimes bogs down in the details of allegiances and political minutiae. But Tonkin delivers dependable, authentic thrills on treacherous land, in turbulent waters and even aboard hovercrafts.

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August 1, 2013
In the 1960s, Japanese scientists discovered a massive oyster bed in Benin La Bas, Africa, that could produce priceless black pearls. A small city was built to house the Japanese company harvesting the pearls, but an erupting volcano wiped out the city and all its occupants in 1973. Decades later, Russian mining conglomerate Bashnev/Sevmash, sometime business partner of shipping magnate Richard Mariner, has discovered that the black-pearl site contains vast reserves of coltan, a substance used in computer and electronics equipment. Eager to harvest the coltan and the fortune it will yield, Bashnev/Sevmash asks Mariner to lead a team to claim the remote lake. To get there means a difficult and dangerous march through a nearly impenetrable jungle rumored to be held by an African guerrilla army led by a fearsome witch doctor. Worse, both the Chinese mining company Hu Wuhan and the government of nearby Congo Libre have their own plans to take over the lake. Ingeniously plotted and packed with nail-biting suspense, fierce rivalries, clever skulduggery, and nightmarish violence, this is a thought-provoking, edge-of-the-seat read for all fans of adventure tales.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)