Journey into the Jungle
Nat Harrison
Piccadilly Press

Passports at the ready if you want to join Maggie Appleton, the girl who raced around the world with Phileas Fogg and his expedition team in another thrilling adventure.

It’s now 1873 and a stranger to Maggie (a Mr West) appears at her door asking for her help. It seems that she and fellow explorers Mr Fogg and Passepartout must now sally forth on another daring adventure – they’re to go to Brazil this time. Their mission is to find the famous botanist, a dear friend of Maggie’s late mother, the very person that Maggie is absolutely desperate to meet. Mr West and Amelia had been on a very important expedition along the Amazon River but the man’s terrible malarial fever had forced him to return without her, leaving Amelia staying with one, Mr Prowles in Morro Fundo (Gold Country) for a week or so to continue her work as a botanical artist. But after four months nothing has been heard from her.

It’s not long before Maggie et al discover that their search for answers yields more questions in the hazardous rainforests where ferocious, ruthless treasure hunters are desperate to make their fortune.

Why though has Amelia vanished and who else is searching for her? With the assistance of friends old and new, Maggie embarks on another hazardous race across the world and now so much more than a wager is at stake. Can she unravel the mystery and find Amelia before it’s too late?

There’s action that will make your heart want to jump from your chest and some larger than life characters in this wonderful travel tale of adventure, and a vital discovery will keep readers turning the pages through to the end: so gripping was it that I read it in a single day.