Pursuit into Darkness

From Library Journal At age 59, Sam Warrender is a semi-retired executive for Proteus Industries. When he receives word that the company is experiencing trouble at a site in Venezuela, Warrender immediately flies down to assess the situation. Archaeology professor Laya Lopez has just unearthed a 9000-year-old artifact, bringing the company's mining operations to a grinding halt. The company president, D.W. Lee, soon joins Warrender, and the two men engage in a contest of wills regarding the course of action to take. To complicate matters, Warrender falls under the spell of Lee's daughter, Jacqueline, a photographer. In predictable fashion, tempers and passions soar in the tropics, especially after Jacqueline is kidnapped. The plot and writing are adequate but not particularly noteworthy. Purchase were demand for such capers is great. Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Should a Venezuelan mountain be stripped of its rich lode of iron ore by the powerful Proteus corporation, or set aside as an archaeological site? The struggle erupts into a boardroom battle for control of Proteus--and then into primitive conflict in the Venezuelan jungle highly reminiscent of Pollock's Lair of the Fox (1989). Proteus chairman and CEO Sam Warrender goes charging down to Cerro Calvario, determined to stop Professor Arquimedeo Laya L¢pez from digging up any more ``broken pottery'' on the mountain, or at least to cut off Proteus funding for the dig. Entranced by an ancient flute excavated under his eyes, Sam abruptly changes his mind, though not the minds of Proteus's bottom-line crew, headed by company president D.W. Lee. Nor is D.W. swayed by his daughter Jacqueline, a budding filmmaker who joins Sam in siding with the dig--and would obviously like to join him in closer quarters too. But Arqui's treacherous assistant Fx82lix Rosales sells him out by insisting to the press that the flute was found elsewhere, a story the Venezuelan government (engorged with a recent transfusion of Proteus cash from D.W.) is only too eager to buy. Standing up for Arqui at a posh reception aboard D.W.'s yacht Kallisto, Sam is discredited by too many drinks and a too-helpful blonde; on his return stateside, the Proteus board dumps him in favor of D.W. But then Fx82lix's uncle, an aging loose-cannon revolutionary, starts bombing Proteus sea traffic, including the Kallisto, and kidnaps Jacqueline, setting the stage for Sam and D.W. to bury the hatchet and team up with a pair of handpicked locals to rescue her and resolve the underlying cultural conflicts in some ways you could never imagine. John Wayne as grizzled multinational CEO, with a disconcertingly young partner as spunky and ineffectual as Maureen O'Hara. The rest of this vigorous, overslung saga is just windowdressing. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.