The Third Promise

by Don Best

This is the Brazil few have ever seen. The spirit of the rainforest laid raw and unadorned.



In his quest to win a future for his son and exact revenge, Zé Licata throws in with a powerful macumbeira, a witch, to ruin his enemy. And so the curse is cast, ringing through the night. But who’s to be the final victim, once all the notes are played?

The Third Promise, Part Two in The Rivers Wild Series, brings us the spellbinding conclusion to The Gravedigger’s Dream. It is at once a naked plunge into the human soul and a bone-jarring adventure into the Brazilian Amazon.

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2022

About the author

From Puerto Rico to Paraguay, from Rio de Janeiro into the wilds of the Amazon, Don Best has lived the life of a world traveler and expatriate writer.

Over a career that has spanned more than 35 years, Don has held senior editorial positions with various publications, authored six books, and established a successful career as a freelance writer and public speaker.

His new two-part novel - The Gravedigger’s Dream and The Third Promise – was inspired by ten years of laughter, tears and lessons hard-won in the Brazilian Amazon. The books comprise the Rivers Wild Series, published by Brimstone Fiction.

While working as a journalist in Rio de Janeiro, Don met his wife, Betty. Together they have formed a wonderful marriage, raised two fine sons, and created a successful writer-photographer team that has lasted four decades. Today they make their home near Charleston, exploring the teeming jungles of South Carolina.

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Reviews

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the clif-hanger ending of Grave Digger's Dream, the first book in this series, I waited with great anticipation for book 2; The Third Promise and it did not disappoint!!! I read a lot for leisure, but when I find a gem that envelops me with the life of the characters and their world, that is pure gold for me. Don Best's characters are all that and more. Ze Licata, his friends, family and enemies all come to life on the page and draw you into their story, deep in the Amazon, engaging all your senses and gripping your heart. We journey with Ze in a foreign land and yet, the desires of Ze's heart are not far from ours... a better life for his son, his own sense of purpose, choices - good and not so good, some downright bad - and their consequences. I was gripped at every page turn and in Ze's deepest despair I couldn't put it down, needing to know and almost willing hope into this character. My second favorite character is Mick... well done! Ze does find redemption and we are led to rejoice with him, even as we consider the cost and the struggles of every human soul...wherever we are on this planet.

[Lisa Rigge · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Third Promise" picks up where "The Gravedigger's Dream" ends, as others have mentioned. Whether you've read the first book in the series or not, you'll be as drawn into "The Third Promise" as Don Best beautifully describes Ze's (the protangonist) physical environment and the life situations he is faced with. The book's setting is in the wilds of the Amazon, which Don Best describes so eloquently becaues he lived there for a decade. The reader will be pulled into this book as much as he was reading the first. Don Best continues to develop his characters and shows he knows how love and heartbreak affects us all, but especially so in the lives of those who live in poverty and hope whom most of us would never meet. "The Third Promise" and "The Gravedigger's Dream" introduces us to a part of the world and a part of life that can only expand one's heart.

[Barbara Fioravanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot. Don Best continues the Rivers Wild story from The Gravedigger's Dream, both set in a rural town in Brazil's Amazon basin. The characters and the environment are well-drawn, bringing the reader into this exotic place that most of us would never have the opportunity to visit. Ze Licata, the protagonist is so very human, yet presented with such superhuman situations that we are drawn into his struggle. While the book can be read separately from The Gravedigger's Dream, as the backstory is well filled in, I would recommend reading it afterward. Both are gripping adventures that explore the best and the worst of human nature.