Customer Reviews
Absolutely excellent.... - By: Per Lilleaas, 08 Nov 2008 
This is how political thrillers are supposed to be written. In addition to the great entertainment value, 'Exile' is an impressive learning experience that offers the reader an objective view of the tragic situationin the Middle East. Patterson tells a believable story with an interesting historical context, & at no time did I find the comprehensive description of lifein Israel & the Palestinian areas boring or superfluous.
Patterson joins the Premier Thriller League - By: The Electric Ghost, 10 Oct 2008 At 700 pages (OK 699) this is a blockbusterin every sense of the word. Using the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as the backdrop, Patterson weaves a very human narrative of Jewish lawyer David Wolfe & his Arab ex-lover, Hana Arif, caught upin the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister. Without taking sides, he intricately (un)tangles the webs of violence, hatreds, ideologies & histories cast over this tiny corner of the Middle East while rolling out the legal events of the arrest & trial of Hana. All of the secondary & tertiary supporting cast are realistically human & three dimensional.I have found Patterson to be an average thriller writerin the past but here he has really stepped up his pacing, characterisation & backdrop. While some key elements to the plot are readily guessable early onin the novel, the denouement is both satisfying & unfinishedin the sense that the future intentions of the surviving main protagonists remain uncertain. Read it, it is truly hard to put down.
A great book - By: P. Gill, 11 Feb 2008 
I've been a fan of Patterson's for well over a decade now & on his day he is capable of brilliant books. However, of late he's moved from the basic legal thriller to more politically based novels. This can be somewhat of a niche market & some of the books have been hit & miss. Exile, however, is a return to form.
In Exile, Patterson defends an ex lover from law school who is charged with masterminding the assissination of the Israeli PM. The woman is now married, has a 12 year old daughter & is Palestinian, while david, the lawyer is an American Jew. As always Patterson weaves an intricate tale & develops characters that you genuinly care about. He also managed to delve into the complexities of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Patterson presents an accurate, balanced portrayal of eventsin the middle east from the perspectives of both jews & arabs. However, one section of the book details David's return to Israel to build a defence for his client. I felt large chunks of this chapter were superfluous & were placed there entirely to dissect the middle eastern problems, as opposed to it being entirely relevant to the book. That however is my only criticism.
The book, because of the subject area, is heavy going at times but is a fascinating thriller, based largely on an apparent conspiracy theory. Theres plenty of twists & turns along the way with a believable ending. An excellent book - thoroughly recommended
EXTREMEY well written - By: Atheana, 07 Jan 2008 The expanse of detail, knowledge, imagery & truthin this book truly makes it an exceptional read. In his acknowledgements, the author comments on how he endeavoured to be as comprehensive as possible. In this he succeeded, & then some.
The above aside, the story while encasedin fact (both geopolitical & otherwise) is edge of your seat stuff. Fair warning though, the complexities of the book - whichin truth probably only begin to reflect the complexities of reality as it relates to the story - can be daunting & you will need to focus if not reread or refer back at certain stagesin the story.
One of the things I think is most valuablein this book is that you can read it, be enthralled by it & LEARN from it. I promise you, once having read Exile, you will go away with a whole new perspective if not insight on the Middle East & it's complexities. That aside, it's one darn good read!
A towering book - excellent narrative and thought-provoking stuff - By: D. Lundholm, 28 Dec 2007 This is a thought-provoking thriller, based on the ongoing conflict between Israel & Palestine. It has an excellent history lesson about just how both sides came to bein their seemingly intractable positions, yet it weaves this throughout a driving narrative based on real characters, with feelings, imperfections & emotions you'd share.
I've always enjoyed RNP's books, having read severalin the past. He writes better than Grisham & his legal process is always rigorously researched.
He is also even-handed, revealing the strengths & the blind spotsin both sets of arguments & he's arguably very prescient about the nature of the Middle East & the part played by Iran.
No less than Bill Clinton says you should read this book. At Amazon prices, you won't find a better readin 2007 or 2007. Highly enjoyable, compelling & thought-provoking. Buy it now!
