UNDER A MELTING SUN
Summary:
The world knew them as the Conwell-Meyrick Expedition, a group of anthropologists who mysteriously vanished while studying a tribe in the Amazon rainforest. But in his lifetime, Reese J. Meyrick knew the only mystery in regards to his life was how to resurrect his hopeless – and inevitably ruined – research.
After fellow field worker Arthur Conwell leaves for personal reasons, Reese takes it upon himself to continue studying the Xerambu alone, a tribe that is less than cooperative in revealing their rituals to outsiders. Disillusioned by the jungle’s reality, Reese turns to his personal journal in order to fend off insanity and loneliness while counting the days he can leave the rainforest and its indigenous people behind. But when Arthur finally returns, he doesn’t return alone. With him is the arrogant anthropologist Dr. J. R. R. Dortworth, and Arthur’s cousin Thora Lowry.
But the reunion is short lived, and Reese again is left behind when the men go on a hunt, leaving Thora in Reese’s care. Quirky, ambitious, and a little more honest then he’d like, Thora is the optimistic opposite to Reese’s detached mood. It’s through a series of events that Thora becomes the instigator in trying to win the Xerambu’s trust, an important concept that could make or break Reese’s research. It’s not until the rest of the expedition arrives and Thora is sent home, accidentally leaving her notebook behind, that Reese realizes that the most optimistic person can hide the darkest secret. In those pages is a very different story of the woman he has started to care for, one that will cause him to fight for a love he had never expected.
From humorous to heartfelt to heartbreaking, Reese’s story is not only about a man who comes to befriend a fading tribe, but of what really happened to an expedition that vanished under a melting sun.
A. M. Dunnewin 