David Orrell

David Orrell. Writer and Mathematician

Gaia (a novel)

The Earth - Gaia - is alive, and we are killing it. It's not a sentiment that would normally trouble oil company PR expert Sandra Glazebrook, even while taking an eco-tourist trip in Venezuela with her sister Anne. But when Anne suddenly and tragically dies of a mysterious illness, and her body goes missing, Sandra and her colleague, investigative journalist Frank Stenson, begin a different kind of journey.

Travelling from a jungle paradise to the slums of Caracas, they encounter corrupt police forces, extreme environmentalists, holistic scientists, and an Earth-worshipping religious cult, led by Angel, whom the authorities claim was killed in a mass-suicide pact but whose influence lives on. As Sandra and Frank move from grief to an unexpected love, they are caught up in a race against a horrible prophecy that they seem powerless to avert. For whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth …