Oro

The true story of how the author and a band of thirty-five ex-cons, derelicts, and fugitives battled through a remote jungle, in a region torn by civil war, to find millions of dollars in gold

Off to a promising, swift start, this first-hand account quickly settles down into running in place. Zyke, a self-described adventurer who roams the world in the ``search for increasingly ambitious projects,'' sets out for Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula in pursuit of gold and quick profits. Along the way he dabbles in grave robbing and selling fake pre-Columbian gold and spends time in jail. Eventually he jumps a claim in the Osa jungles and begins the daily grind of prospecting with his rag-tag band of misfits and ex-cons. All the elements for a true-life Indiana Jones story appear to be here, but in fact are not. Instead, Zyke is blustery and brutal; and the story is ultimately boring. Jerry Maioli, Western Lib. Network, Olympia, Wash. Copyright 1987 Cahners Business Information.

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Born in Morocco of Albanian descent, Zyke has had a life of daring and adventure on several continents, earning money by gambling, fighting and other activities that skirted lawlessness. This book concerns his doings in Costa Rica, where he followed rumors of an exceedingly rich source of gold in that country's mountainous jungle and found them to be true. And so, surrounded by mud, snakes, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and jealous rival prospectors, he set up a camp, peopled by ex-convicts and fugitives, to mine gold. Zyke's venture prospered for a while, until his fellow entrepreneurs betrayed him to the police, who charged him with drug trafficking, counterfeiting and intimidation. While awaiting trial, he fled to Panama with only 3000 grams of gold as a souvenir of his Costa Rican mine. The story of Zyke's wenching, drinking and drug-taking is hardly unique in the contemporary world, but Oro was a bestseller in France, perhaps due to its racy situations and lively, slangy prose. Author tour. (June 16) Copyright 1987 Cahners Business Information.