A damaged man searching for a missing friend and a successful trouble-shooter investigating a mineral shortage join forces in the Congo’s Ituri Forest in this fast-paced, thought-provoking thriller.
Beatrice Makuru, a mining troubleshooter, suspects that recent mine explosions across Africa are not all that they seem. The mines produce a mineral called Coltan, an essential component in laptops and mobile phones. With supply running dry, one mine in the middle of the Congo’s Ituri Forest appears to be flourishing. It produces a special version of the mineral called ‘Fire’ Coltan which is set to revolutionise the communications industry. Beatrice, not believing in coincidences, travels to the Congo to investigate.
Meanwhile Luca Matthews, a brilliant but damaged climber, also sets off for the Ituri Forest in search of a missing friend, a doctor who has been helping in refugee camps but has mysteriously disappeared.
Fate joins the pair in their individual quests but, following a plane crash, they end up running for their lives through the Ituri, chased by an army of drugged-up youths under the command of a despotic rebel leader who controls the mine and has a far sinister purpose for mining and promoting the use of Fire Coltan than is initially realised.
Added into the mix are a Chinese ‘Guild’ of influential families who supply arms to the rebel group in return for the minerals, a Chinese General charged with buying control of the mine while clearly working to his own agenda and a group of mercenaries who fight for whoever bids the highest.
The plot is comfortably predictable at times but there are a few twists to keep the pages turning. The success of the book lies mostly with the way that Patrick Woodhead describes a country that I knew little about before reading this book. Having travelled to the Congo himself (he is a professional explorer with an impressive list of ‘explorer’ achievements) he writes vividly of the people and the place. At times I felt as if I was actually there, dumped in the middle of the Ituri Forest with nothing but my wits and my stamina to help me survive.
Woodhead also opened my eyes to the plight of people who live in a country that is constantly tearing itself apart as the latest ‘rebel’ group murders, rapes and pillages in its bid to gain ‘freedom’, only to become the newly white-washed, internationally-approved, tyrannical Government a few months down the line. Greed is a recurring theme in this novel and the epilogue is a cynical nod to the way that influential world Governments prioritise political and monetary gain before humanitarian concerns.
A surprisingly sobering thriller. Well worth a read.
