WHEN Californian lawyer Damon Pierce receives a frantic email appeal for help from Marissa Okari, a woman he loved years ago, he risks everything, including his life, to go to her aid. Marissa s husband, Bobby, is the charismatic leader of a freedom movem

WHEN Californian lawyer Damon Pierce receives a frantic email appeal for help from Marissa Okari, a woman he loved years ago, he risks everything, including his life, to go to her aid.

Marissa's husband, Bobby, is the charismatic leader of a freedom movement in a volatile west African country which is being torn apart by the world's craving for its vast supply of oil.

Bobby's outspoken opposition to the brutal, tyrannical president, sees him arrested and charged with murder.

He is tortured, is unlikely to get a fair trial and will almost certainly be executed.

Damon flies out to defend Bobby at his show trial even though neither he, Marissa or Bobby may survive.

Richard North Patterson's new thriller, Eclipse (�17.99, Macmillan) is set in the fictional country of Luandia but the author was inspired to write the book by the execution 15 years ago in Nigeria of human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the country's corrupt dictator, General Sani Abacha.

Damon finds a community terrified to speak out, where the most horrific abuses are carried out by Karama's soldiers. And not even his American passport is a guarantee of protection.

He also has to deal with the rekindling of an attraction with Marissa.

Eclipse is a pacy thriller combined with a vivid look at the human cost of the global lust for power. It may be fiction, but it is not far removed from fact (just look at Zimbabwe), and that's a horrifying thought.

- LINDSAY JONES