The Second Tree by John Butziger

An interesting espionage tale with shadowy government corporations, likeable yet unheroic protagonists and biblical overtones that weaves together nicely to form a quick paced adventure. This is not a story of a lost alien artifact, or an all powerful crystal or some new weapon, it’s a super fruit that gives the person eating it a healing factor on par with Wolverine.

Whilst researching for a Culinary Network, set director Martin takes a stumble in the jungle and finds himself alone, seriously injured and drifting in an out of consciousness. Brought back to health by mysterious and unknown rescuers he is eventually found by his friends and much to his own surprise finds himself in remarkably good health. Not quite putting two and two together he gives the fruit found in his pockets to his mate Andrew who starts to grow it on masse, with plans to wow the New York food scene. Whilst experimenting with different dishes and eating copious amounts of the fast growing fruit he suffers a serious injury. Upon waking to find it completely healed, Andrew begins experimenting on himself and soon finds that injury he incurs heals almost instantly and this is where the book takes off.

As word spreads of this miraculous cure all and we see multiple parties making a play for the goods we get a nice balance of action, suspense and intrigue. In fact, I was surprised at how well this book kept my attention as neither the scientific or the religious aspects of a book generally interest me but the combination of pacing, atmosphere and story telling kept me involved in the story.

The character building is not hugely deep but I get the feeling these are all fairly normal, you and me sort of people, as opposed to readily identifiable archetypes that populate many of the books I read. Martin is a bit of a collector, a little obsessive, greedy but does not seem like a bad guy, while Andrew has a bit more of a moral centre and seems to recognise the benefits of their discovery beyond the financial gain. Andrew is certainly exposed to things that allow him to be a bit more empathetic so his journey is little more developed.

There are some real moments of horror and gore in this book that I was not expecting and I really enjoyed the scenes where Martin is revealed to have smatterings of The Walking Dead's 'Governor' character in him as, well as the fact that you can never underestimate the bad side of such a healing factor. This all begins quite innocently but cascades spectacularly as the book picks up pace.

They say power corrupts, but does being aware of that diminish the fact and provide resolve or merely give one an excuse to fall from grace. It’s an interesting question that I hope this series and the author will continue to explore and I'm happy to recommend this to anyone who feels like an easy enjoyable read that, whilst part of an upcoming series, is a book that comfortably stands on its own two feet and provides a satisfying conclusion.