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|summary=In an unnamed southern American country, a civil war with an undefined cause has led to mass human population movement, and many people disappearing for political reasons. A radio show host finds her show helps reunite her listeners with the missing, but she is seeking someone herself. The premise remains interesting, but is let down slightly by the writing.

Ten years of civil unrest, that started no-one knows how, has left the city swollen, and the outlying areas of the country decimated. People have been taken from their homes for political reasons, for press-ganging into the army, or have just sought the success the city brings. Thousands of people are missing, and thousands are missing them. They have the lifeline of ringing Norma's chat show, and appealing for information, for a reunion, if possible.

Rey is rare in that he can easily pass from city to jungle. His marriage to Norma has to form around the times he vanishes for imprisonment, but seems successful and happy. He's lucky in that, like Norma, his family unit is small, and the unrest has not left him searching for someone - he knows why his mother died. Forced after the family name got blackened to leave for the city, he had his father and uncle to look after him, before he became a scientist, researching medicinal jungle plants.

I can't fault the premise of this book; using years of research Daniel Alarcon has provided himself with a very interesting thrillerish launch for his first novel. The locations are used very well, from the all-seeing heights of the radio station's skyscraper, to the villages where the little boys are unaware of just what 'tall buildings' means. It's a fully developed city, flooded by too many nameless people - the slum areas, some demolished during the war, spreading to the foothills of nearby mountains and beyond.

Unfortunately, I found myself wanting a different approach from Alarcon in the telling. Somehow the book left a continuously grey after-image. The radio station equipment must be grey, the city is clouded by a climate that always appears to want to rain but very rarely does (definitely Lima, again), and even the colour of the jungle is absent. Also, the style leaves a grey impression. Past and present collide in the subtlest of ways, as information relevant to the mystery is withheld, and the flashbacks demand a high level of concentration. At the same time , the major revelations are just dripped onto the page with no fanfare, they're easily passed over and thought unnecessary.