Damon Pierce's life has just reached a defining moment: a gifted California lawyer, he's being divorced by his wife, and his work often seems soulless. Then he receives an urgent email from Marissa Brand Okari--a woman he loved years ago--and decides to risk everything to respond to her plea for help. Marissa's husband, Bobby Okari, is the leader of a freedom movement in the West African nation of Luandia. Bobby's opposition to the exploitation of his homeland by PetroGlobal--a giant American oil company with close ties to Luandia's brutual government--has enraged the country's autocratic ruler. After Bobby leads a protest rally during a full eclipse of the sun, everyone in his home village is massacred by government troops. And now Bobby has been arrested and charged with the murder of three PetroGlobal workers. Pierce agrees to defend Bobby, hoping to save both Bobby and Marissa from almost certain death. But the lethal politics of Luandia may cost Pierce his life instead.

Richard North Patterson is the author of Exile, The Race, and thirteen other bestselling and critically acclaimed novels. He lives in San Francisco and Martha's Vineyard with his wife.