(Publisher’s Weekly, Oct. 20)

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, emails 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:  econological disasters, a brutal dictaor with murderous henchmen, a rapacious foreign oil company and an oppressed populace.  After everyone in Okari’s village is slaughter, Bobby is arrested for the lynching of three oil workers.  Damon, because he’s a good man and because he’s still in love withe 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.  (It will be out in January 2009)