The spellbinding story of an American lawyer who takes on a nearly impossible case--the defense of an African freedom fighter against his corrupt government's charge of murdering three PetroGlobal workers.
What Patterson has done here is create a really great story in an interesting landscape with a few really interesting characters. The story is set in Luandia, which is loosely based on the country of Nigeria. Bobby Okari fashions himself a modern-day Nelson Mandela, fighting for the good of his people, the Asari. When he is accused (perhaps wrongly, perhaps not) of orchestrating the lynching of three oil workers, his wife, the American Marissa, calls up an old friend for legal help. Damon Pierce is a lawyer who specializes in international war crimes cases. He has struggled his whole life to feel like he is contributing something to society and the greater good, and by helping Marissa and representing Bobby Okari, he hopes to reclaim that feeling. Tied up with these three are a whole host of nefarious Luandian government officials and oil barons, none of them anyone you can believe or trust.
The story here is very captivating, because you can’t ever by sure whether Pierce will succeed in saving Okari’s life, or if they will all lose. Unfortunately, it does fall flat in a few places. The situation in Luandia is explained over and over and over again in the first third of the book, until you just want to shout, “Okay, I get it! It’s a hellhole!” How many times do we have to be shown the same situations? I feel like Patterson is shoving his own personal politics down our throats a bit. Also, Pierce is a very underdeveloped character. You know about his career and his feelings for Marissa, but I never felt like I really knew him. But when it was all said and done, I felt it was a compelling, solid read and I was very glad I had read it.
