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I was anxious to read Richard North Patterson’s latest novel, Eclipse, partly because he’s a semi-local author, and partly because I’ve liked his past work. I used to read a lot of legal thrillers–a la John Grisham–which has been Patterson’s primary genre in the past, but have leaned more toward straight-ahead cop stories and serial killer sagas as of late. Much to my disappointment–at least as far as I read–Eclipse is less legal thriller than political nightmare. The protagonist, Damon Pierce, is a lawyer, but also a writer, who embarks upon a mission to Africa in hopes of freeing the husband of a fellow writer who is being held as a political prisoner.

I balked initially over the subject matter, because, truthfully, politics–in any country–often bores the hell out of me, and I have a tough time following various government machinations. If that makes me sound like a cretin, so be it. I decided to forge ahead with the novel, though, because, politics or not, the subject matter was compelling and the author a prior good read. After it took me a week to read the first hundred pages, I did what I almost never–almost never–do: I quit. The narration was dry, the chacters lacked any real development, and I just didn’t care what was around the next corner (although, in this case, probably guys with automatic weapons). To paraphrase another popular author, I just wasn’t that into it. And I have a stack of other stuff waiting. A really big stack.

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