Dick Heidt - City Magazine

ECLIPSE
by Richard North Patterson
GOOD READS |
By Ed Klecker
Bestselling author, Richard
North Patterson, takes us
to the village of Goro in
the West African nation
of Luandia. A rare total eclipse of
the sun is taking place, and the only
light remaining is the gas flares
from PetroGlobal Oil, referred to
as “The Devil's Light” by the local
natives.
The country dictator, Savior Karama,
had decreed there be no protest
demonstrations during hours of
darkness. In defiance, Bobby Okari,
self-styled emulator of Martin Luther
King and charasmatic opposition
leader, uses the eclipse as a pretext
for a peaceful protest march, with the villagers marching with lit
cigarette lighters.
Under the orders of President Karama, Colonel Okimbo, a
psychotic and sadistic killer, leads Luandian soldiers into Goro,
where a vicious massacre ensues. Every protestor and villager is
tortured and murdered. Bobby Okari is arrested under a trumped
up charge of sedition and murder, and his American-born and
educated wife, Marissa, is forbidden to leave the country.
So sets the stage for Eclipse, a searing account of life and
death in an oil-rich, but corrupt, West African country.
An idealistic and highly successful American attorney,
Damon Pierce, had become close friends with Bobby Okari and
Marissa during their college years at Berkeley. In fact, he found
he still carried a torch for Marissa.
Damon convinces his Wall Street law firm to take on a law
suit again PetroGlobal, hoping that company would exert influence
on President Karama to drop the charges against Bobby and
send him and his wife into exile.
Subsequently, Pierce travels to Luandia and is permitted to
serve as counsel in Okari’s sham murder trial. Damon finds deceit
and corruption at every point. On more than one occasion,
his life is put in danger.
The author is a former trial attorney, and his account of the
sham Luandian trial is fascinating to read. The tension builds
rapidly and, as the reader reaches the end of the novel, the book
becomes nearly impossible to put down.
The author has done an incredible research of West Africa
and the corruption of oil riches and venal dictators.
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April 2009 5