From the bestselling author ofJurassic Park,Timeline, andSpherecomes a gripping thriller about the shocking demise of eight American geologists in the darkest region of the Congo.Deep in the African rain forest, near the ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, a field expedition is brutally killed. At the Houston-based Earth Resources Technology Services, Inc., a horrified supervisor watches a gruesome video transmission of that ill-fated group and sees a haunting, grainy, man-like blur moving amongst the bodies. In San Francisco, an extraordinary gorilla named Amy, who has a 620-sign vocabulary, may hold the secret to that fierce carnage. Immediately, a new expedition is sent to the Congo with Amy in tow, descending into a secret, forbidden world where the only escape may be through the grisliest death.Amazon.com ReviewIf you saw the 1995 film adaptation of this Crichton thriller, somebody owes you an apology. While you're waiting forthatto happen, try reading the vastly more intelligent novel on which the movie was based. The broad lines of the plot remain the same: A research team deep in the jungle disappears after a mysterious and grisly gorilla attack. A subsequent team, including a sign-language-speaking simian named Amy, follows the original team's tracks only to be subjected to more mysterious and grisly gorilla attacks. If you can look past the breathless treatment of '80s technology, like voice-recognition software and 256K RAM modules (the book was written in 1980), you'll find the same smart use of science and edge-of-your-seat suspense shared by Crichton's other work.--Paul HughesReviewA group of scientists visits the Congo jungle in search of a lost city and a domestic ape’s ancestors, only to find the jungle holds some strange primates who have killer instincts. High drama marks a vivid condensed audio version of a thriller. --Midwest Book Review