The Hadrian Memorandum

Check your brain at the door, and you're in for a fast, fun adrenaline rush of a story. A landscape architect from Manchester is shown some photos while touring an an island on Equatorial Guinea, and then suddenly the priest is dead, the landscape architect is in flight, and a civil war is breaking out with atrocities galore. While the priest had the wherewithal to burn the photos, the originals and the digital camera card must exist somewhere. And some very powerful, resourceful people have it in their best interests to retrieve it. The Hadrian Memorandum takes us on a long chase scene involving international intrigue at the highest level. Folsom does a superb job keeping those pages turning; the main characters don't slow down for a second, and neither does the reader. Unlike an action movie, however, the characters are fully developed -- the reader understands the motives of each, even if the levels of violence are implausible. The ending was not entirely expected -- the chase ended with a whimper, not a bang, but the final resolution I though was entirely reasonable. And I was okay with this resolution -- the Ultimate Bad Guy was highly skilled, highly trained, highly effective at what he does. We never really know our hero's full story; he his highly resourceful, but, one suspects, not at the same caliber as the UBG. The chase ends in an unexpected manner, but also does not subvert the nature of the protagonists. My only real complaint in this techno-thriller concerns the use (or lack thereof) of technology itself. The crux of the plot involves digital media. much time, effort, and lives could have been saved if our heroes would have put their efforts in finding a way to digitally transmit the data. Technology that could have just as easily have ended the chase is instead employed only to make it more intense. It's still a highly entertaining story, and I look forward to Folsom's next novel. If you like action movies, this book is for you.

I'm only half way through and I really like this book. But the Publisher should really be ashamed. There are so far at least three typos and double words. The editor needs to go back to editing school.

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 escapades 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 suspend realism will enjoy this exciting thriller. Harriet Klausner