Return to Iquitos: Suspense and Romance on the Amazon River

This story is about an American expat named Mitch Winslow, who trades goods along the wildest reaches of the upper Amazon River in his old trawler boat. After stopping for supplies at a remote mestizo village, a captivating woman asks Mitch for passage to the frontier town of Iquitos. He says he doesn’t take passengers, and it will be several days before he returns to Iquitos-not mentioning that the police are looking for him there. She pleads for his help, saying she has been shunned from her village. He finally relents. But life-threatening trouble soon upends their journey, first drawing them together, then forcing them apart.

James Luger’s commentary This novel is very loosely based on an expedition that I and a friend organized into the wilds of the Peruvian Amazon Jungle. We journeyed hundreds of miles upriver in a wood thatched-roof boat to the explosive clash of two Andean Mountain rivers that converge to give birth to the mighty Amazon River. On another trip, we trekked through the foothills of snow-capped Andean Mountains. These two explorations formed the backdrop of this exciting love story.