A DISPARATE group of tourists trek through the Impenetrable Forest of Uganda to see gorillas in their natural habitat when they are captured by bandits from across the border in the Congo and held to ransom.

But were they snatched as an opportunist way to make money and raise political awareness to a cause? Or was there another more sinister reason? And was their group actually chosen at random?

Veronica Kelly, a former model turned aids worker in Kampala, is determined to survive and discover the real motives and the real villains behind her continuing nightmare.

The author has travelled extensively across middle and South Africa to research this thriller and at times it reads like a travelogue. He has a vivid eye for detail but can dismiss characters a little too easily in a tale that yomps through the bush and across countries leaving twitching bodies in its wake.

DENIS KILCOMMONS