In this riveting, real-life adventure tale, New Yorker writer Grann deftly intercuts between a biography of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett and his own quest to find out what happened to the great explorer, who disappeared in the Brazilian Amazon in 1925. He gets farther than anyone before in solving the mystery of the man -- and a lost civilization in the Amazon, thanks to his own dogged determination (and considerable research skills), never-before-examined Fawcett family papers, and the work of archaeologists like Anna Roosevelt and Michael J. Heckenberger. There may not have been an El Dorado but Fawcett, as it turns out, was right that great urban centers once flourished in the Amazon. Though you may disagree with his conclusions about the fabled lost city that seduced Fawcett, Grann is a great storyteller. Bradt Pitt bought the movie rights with the idea of starring as the colonel.  (AMZ117, $15.95)