River of Death is a 1981 adventure novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean set in the jungles of South America.
Published late in MacLean’s career, the book follows his established formula of placing characters in hostile terrain where they face betrayal, violence and the merciless forces of nature. The South American jungle setting provides the unforgiving backdrop for a story centred on adventure, treachery and murder. MacLean, known for thrillers such as The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare, built his reputation on taut plots that combined geopolitical intrigue with extreme physical environments. River of Death exemplifies his late-period work, maintaining the tension and remote locations that defined his earlier successes while exploring the dangers of tropical wilderness rather than the Arctic, mountain or maritime settings more familiar from his 1950s and 1960s output.
