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- Percy and Two Other Fools Reviewed By Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com
Percy and Two Other Fools Reviewed By Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com
- By Norm Goldman
- Published December 25, 2018
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
Norm Goldman
Reviewer & Author Interviewer, Norm Goldman. Norm is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.
He has been reviewing books for the past twenty years after retiring from the legal profession.
To read more about Norm Follow Here
Author: Michael J. Merry
Publisher: PublishNation LLC
ISBN: 978-0-359-21164-7
Fast forward
to 2018 where a wealthy English landowner, Viscount Lynn is
determined to find out about the mysterious disappearance of Fawcett and perhaps, many other questions that would be unraveled by the discovery.
To help in
his search, Lynn puts together an expeditionary team consisting of
nine members. The team comprises Lynn, his associate, Sir Paul
Soames, who is a businessman and diplomat, Staff Sergeant John
Pullen, an expert in jungle warfare, two guides, three very
experienced canoe-men doubling as porters, and another jungle expert,
Thiago Perez. Their mission is to travel to the Mato Grosso in Brazil
in the hope of finding what actually happened to Fawcett and his
companions. Rumour had it that they were slaughtered by a native
tribe who inhabited the area.
Michael J. Merry's Brazilian
jungle setting is exploited fully in his recent novel, Percy
and Two Other Fools, a
thriller plot which includes treacherous living conditions, friendly
and not-so-friendly indigenous peoples of Brazil, near-death
experiences, and a band of Mafia type pirates that through their
corrupt government contacts got wind of Lynn's expedition. The Patrão
(boss) of the pirates was Benico Renatto, who along with his
assistant, Cezar 'o Escorpião Costa, was convinced that the lost
city would contain valuables that they would love to get their hands
on.
Their plan was to shadow Lynn's team and eventually relieve them
of any treasures that may be found in the ancient lost city.
Incidentally, Renatto is also the President of a legal Amazon
transport operation, one of the biggest. He is a ruthless man backed
by a very large organization that makes money by stealing cargoes on
the Amazon. In addition, he is also involved with many other illegal
activities.
Aside from the thriller feature of the story,
Merry also irrigates the novel with some fascinating information
about some of the indigenous peoples of Brazil or the tribes that
have maintained their traditions of a previous culture associated
with a given region. We learn about the Kayapo who inhabit a vast
area spreading across the states of Pará Mato Grosso, south of the
Amazon Basin and along Rio Xingu and its tributaries. They refer to
outsiders as "Poanjos."
We are also introduced to the
Piripkura tribe that live in the Amazon forest in the state of Mato
Grosso. Their territory is in the Colniza district, which is
estimated to be the most violent area in Brazil, and one of the worst
in the Brazilian Amazon for deforestation. In our yarn, they are the
protectors of the lost city and play an important role in the novel
as they hold the key as to what happened to Fawcett and his
companions.
As Merry mentions in his Observation page that
appears at the beginning of the novel, he had no idea of the
suffering and pain that many of the quarter-million indigenous
peoples of Brazil have experienced.
As a result, the novel also
reflects deep-seated respect of people and culture and it is
recommended that one should read this multidimensional novel not only
for its cliff-hanger aspect but also for its rich descriptions and
full-blooded characters. In addition, quite impressive is Merry's
measured narration and strong controlled writing that is full of
concrete images that energetically carries the plot along and that
once again demonstrate Merry as a great storyteller.
FOLLOW HERE TO READ NORM'S INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL J. MERRY