Review: First Contact

(My Copy, Arrow Books 2009)

Getting lost in the trackless jungles of Papua New Guinea turns a dream holiday into a nightmare struggle to survive for Mark and Melanie Bridges, remarkably this is only the start of their troubles. The discovery of a crashed helicopter containing two human skeletons, one of which has a briefcase handcuffed to its wrist provides them with the supplies they need to survive and pitches them, on their return home, against several parties willing to kill to acquire the contents of the case.

Patrick Woodrow’s second novel is a page turner in the fine tradition of airport fiction, packed with plot twists and last second escapes from certain death. That alone gives it all the ingredients of a satisfying read, to this Woodrow adds one vital ingredient, authenticity.

However outlandish the situations he paces his characters in he never loses sight of the wider picture of the lengths to which the less scrupulous pharmaceutical companies are willing to go in search of a product that will give them a commercial advantage over their rivals. Along the way he touches on the potential for lasting damage posed by their first contact with Western civilization for the few remaining tribes as yet untouched by the modern world.

This is a competent and convincing thriller that mixes excitement with an intelligent interest in the world’s last remaining wild places that suggests Patrick Woodrow may well do something really remarkable with his third or fourth book.