State of Wonder - Ann Patchett

This captivating story describes the quest of a pharmaceutical researcher, Dr. Marina Singh, to determine how her long-time colleague and friend, Dr. Anders Eckman, died. He had been sent by the CEO of their company to the Amazon to find the brilliant but renegade researcher Dr. Annick Swenson, who has shrouded her efforts to develop a new drug in complete secrecy. After three months with little communication from Eckman, the CEO receives a terse and sterile note from Dr. Swenson saying simply that Eckman died of a fever. Dr. Singh initially accepts the assignment to find out what happened out of her friendship for Dr. Eckman, sympathy for his wife, and loyalty to the CEO. But there are relationships within relationships - Singh is actually the secret lover of the CEO, Eckman's wife had been worried about whether Singh was having an affair with Eckman, and the imperious Dr. Swenson was formerly the exacting supervisor of Dr. Singh during her medical residency. These connections, and new ones that develop, especially with a deaf native boy, Easter, are the main substance of the book, and the driving force of its narrative. But Patchett also astonishes with vivid, startling episodes. Wonderful reading.