The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

Author: Candice Millard

List Price: $26

Pages: 432

Publisher:  Doubleday (October 18, 2005)

Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2

ISBN: 0385507968   

At once an incredible adventure narrative¹ and a penetrating² biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.

The River of Doubt-it is a black, uncharted tributary³ of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous⁴ jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide⁵ through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling⁶ cauldron.

After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil's most famous explorer, C?ndido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished⁸ a feat⁷ so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.

Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink⁹ of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller¹⁰ that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.

From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt's life, here is Candice Millard's dazzling debut¹¹.

Book review

This is James' eighteenth book, and is one of Adam Dalgliesh series.

On the eve of a special weekend with his new love, Emma Lavenham, Dalgliesh is summoned to handle an especially delicate case at short notice. He and his team, D.I. Kate Miskin and Sargeant Benton-Smith, are to fly by helicopter to remote Combe Island to investigate the suspicious death of a prominent author, and report back immediately. The island is needed for a secret conference and it must be shown to be secure.

The dead man, aging novelist Nathan Oliver, had been found hanging from the rails of the lighthouse. The few residents and guests on the island all had reason to dislike him, but no real obvious motives¹² for murder (the bruising¹³ on his neck does prove it to be murder).

The manager, the accountant/priest, the housekeeper¹⁴, the cook, the boat captain, the handyman, the maid, the last descendant of the family who owned the island and her valet, the teenage maid, the two guests, and the novelist's middle-aged¹⁵ daughter and his personal copy editor...who could have hated him so much?

Another tragic¹⁶ death happens before the mystery can be solved; and a SARS outbreak takes out Dalgliesh, quarantines the island, and leaves Miskin and Benton-Smith on their own and in charge.

This book is another success for James--a wonderful location and her usually superbly drawn and realistically motivated characters make it a must-read this winter