Allan Folsom, The Hadrian Memorandum

The Hadrian Memorandum

Allan Folsom

Forge, Oct 2009, $25.99

ISBN: 9780765321572

He once was an LAPD detective, but that seems like a lifetime ago. Now he goes by the name Nicholas Marten living in England as a landscape architect with his former life of violence supposedly over. However, he made a friend for life when he saved the life of POTUS John Henry Harris (see The Machiavelli Covenant); but as he now learns a friend in need is a pest.

President Harris asks Marten to travel to Equatorial Guinea in West Africa to determine whether native rebels trying to overthrow the harsh Tiombe dictatorship are being armed by security belonging to Texas based oil exploration firm AG Striker. In country on the Island of Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea, Marten meets septuagenarian Father Dorhn who shows him photographic proof of collusion. However, soldiers loyal to Tiombe raid the village killing the German born priest and forcing Marten on the run from the dictator's forces, the CIA, mercenaries, and the oil company as he struggles to reach Europe and allies in order to transmit information to Harris; oil brings out lethal partners as agreed upon with The Hadrian Memorandum.

Over the top of Pico Basile, fans who appreciate an international accelerated thriller will enjoy the escapdes of Marten in sub-Saharan Africa, Berlin and Lisbon. The story line is fast-paced from the moment POTUS asks the American expat "gardener" to investigate and never slows down. Although plausibility is below the Cameroon Line geologic fault and the plot fails to look at the corrupt political-economic complex that cripples the impoverished area, fans who suspende realism will enjoy this exciting thriller.

Harriet Klausner