Julie's Review: Eclipse

Summary: This stellar legal thriller from bestseller Patterson (Exile) both informs and entertains. On the eve of getting a divorce, Damon Pierce, a 40-year-old partner in a huge San Francisco, Calif., law firm, who specializes in international litigation, e-mails Marissa Brand, a woman he was once in love with in college, to update her on his life. Marissa is married to Bobby Okari, a firebrand reformer whose Nigeria-like country, Luandia, is awash in oil. With these riches come the usual scenarios: ecological disasters, a brutal dictator with murderous henchmen, a rapacious foreign oil company and an oppressed populace. After everyone in Okari's village is slaughtered, Bobby is arrested for the lynching of three oil workers. Damon, because he's a good man and because he's still in love with Marissa, signs on to defend Bobby from the bogus charge. Patterson has exerted all his considerable skill in creating a nightmare atmosphere that will cling to readers long after the last page is turned. ~amazon.com

Review: Dear God, I can't finish Eclipse. Let me start by saying that I don't mind politics as long as it's not in your face and this is in your face. Oil companies and American politics are bad. We are all money hungry fools who are blind to other areas of the world. First of all as an American I can say that I'm not a money hungry fool and while I wasn't happy with the last 8 years I didn't think it was the worst time in history either. That being said. Even putting the politics aside, I just didn't care about the characters. Bobby Okari is a flat, 2-dimensional character and I really didn't care about him and if he lived or died. I did find that the movement of the Akari people to be fascinating and I felt for their plight. His wife Marissa was a weak woman whose cause was her husband's and she was there to support him. Now I have no problem with that if that's the path you chose BUT don't make that the main female character in your book. Then there's (Damon) Pierce...he's in love with Marissa and agrees to defend her husband, since his speciality just happens to be International Law. I mean I didn't even finish the book and I could tell where this was going.

I was over 1/2 done when I decided that I couldn't take it anymore. I used to love Richard North Patterson but probably won't be reading him again unless he goes back to his non-political thrillers. If you want to read a really good book by him try Eyes of a Child.

If political thrillers are your thing and you don't mind the author's politics being shoved down your throat from page one....Eclipse is for you.

There are too many other good books waiting to be read.

No final take since I didn't finish it.