Exile

I finally finished Richard North Patterson's Exile! I've been working on this one since Christmas, so I was glad to finally finish it. It's not a bad book, but it was just sooo long and I bought my own copy, so I set it aside several times to get through the library books that were due. This was actually a really great read. Israel's prime minister is assassinated on a trip to the United States. When one of the would-be assassins survives the suicide bombing, he implicates Hana Arif, a Palestinian woman visiting the United States at the time of the murder. Hana contacts her law school classmate and former lover, David Wolfe, to defend her. David is a Jew, so his decision to defend the woman on trial for murdering the prime minister of Israel does not sit well with his fiance or his friends. But David strongly believes in Hana's innocence and as he attempts to unravel the conspiracy, he uncovers a frightening plot.

I've never read Richard North Patterson before, but I picked this up on a recommendation from a library patron. Although it is a mystery/suspense novel, it's meatier than many in this genre. Patterson weaves quite a lot of the Palestinian/Israeli history into the story, and for those like me who know little about this conflict, it provides a good unbiased background. As I mentioned before, the book is quite long and a few times I found myself thinking "get on with the story" but it's very well written and the plot will keep you hooked!