STATE OF WONDER by Ann Patchett

An employee of a pharmaceutical company dies while on a research stay in the Amazon, and his colleague is sent to find out what happened to him and the academic research project the company had funded. The project is run by a scientist who insists on research independence, but then gives up reporting on her progress or the nature of the drug she is developing in the Amazon. A beautifully written, somewhat off-the-wall mystery and adventure story, with serious issues of scientific ethics and the relationship between the private and public research sectors