THUNDER COUNTRY

Here's an author can be counted on for exciting adventure and unique backgrounds. This is a companion story to The Ruin Forest (1947) and we meet again Chad Powell, still determined that he is going to be an ornithologist, and his scientist father, beat this time, on penetrating the jungles of Venezuela on an expedition to the head hunters and the rare bird specimens their region is said to yield. There are parallels between the two stories, an Chad forms a firm friendship with a native boy, learns much of the wilderness ways, seeks out the secret hiding place of the chief and finds there the answer to the disappearance of a great Venezuelan. While Sperry- for my money -- in still at his best in stories of the sea, he is always a first rate spinner of tales, and his tropical backgrounds live.