Michael Crichton's Congo

Congo is a science fiction novel, written by Michael Crichton in 1980. He was an American science fiction writer, born in 1942 and died in 2008. He was well known for his book, Jurassic Park.

Congo is set around an expedition taking place in the congo, whose goal is to find diamonds and study the behaviour of a young gorilla, called Amy, who has been taught sign language. The story starts with the news that an ERTS (Earth Resource Technology Services) team, that was in the congo, have been killed. Their cause of death is unknown, except that there is an image of grey gorilla captured on the camera. There is a big panic but it is decided that another expedition will be sent in as quick as possible, in order to investigate the mystery. The primary reason, however, is to get to the diamonds before the rival consortiums. Karen Ross, a young and enthusiastic researcher is reluctantly put in charge of the team. The other members of the team are Charles Munro, a shady mercenary who is their guide, Peter Elliot, a gorilla researcher and his young female gorilla, Amy, whom he has taught sign language to.

They walk through the jungle, without too much hassle. Upon arriving at the Lost City of Zinj, they discover the consortium’s campsite, uprooted much like the one of their previous expedition. They set up camp but lose contact to ERTS that night. Coincidentally, they are attacked by the same grey gorillas as seen in the picture of the old expedition’s campsite. The party manages to hold their ground and several grey gorillas are killed. They examine them in the morning and conclude that they are not “pure” gorillas but more a gorilla-human. They also notice that the gorillas feed by day but will only attack at