The Trade Mission. (Pan)

Imagine your job is to translate for a pair of arrogant technology whizzkids on business in South America. Imagine you are accompanying them on a jaunty boat trip up the river Amazon. Imagine that late one night some foreign bandits steal onto the boat and kill the crew. Imagine that you and your charges are kidnapped at gun point. Would you give your life for theirs in the name of survival?

Crossman is faced with just this dilemma. A seemingly straightforward trek through the jungle rapidly breaks down into mayhem and, after the kidnapping, nobody knows who to trust. There are five of them - the whizzkids, their two colleagues and Crossman - buried in a deep, dark pit with the ever-present threat of torture to keep them there. But an escape route is finally found and quickly five become three, stranded in a tiny boat on the enormous Amazon and facing new threats from the surrounding wildlife. But these are as nothing compared with the often violent re-drawing of allegiances between the three survivors . . .

The Trade Mission confirms Andrew Pyper's mastery of thriller writing and explores new - and terrifying - territory against the dramatic backdrop of the Amazonian jungle.