Customer Reviews

The Hadrian Memorandum

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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

This was a good book with a lot of great chase scenes. Sure there were several ways the book could have gone, but this was a fun book and fans of Nick Marten will enjoy this one....I find Folsom's style very easy to read, fast paced and fun.

Allan Folsom was recommended by our local bookstore manager. He said that "Day After Tomorrow" was the best book he had ever read. I agreed after reading it. Since that time I have read and collected a hard cover copy of each of Allan's four books. "The Hadrian Memorandum" is full or twists and turns that you know make it impossible for the characters to survive, but through breathtaking adventures, they still do. I am looking forward to the author's next book and would love to attending a book signing. I want to meet this man who has an unimaginable imagination which he is able to transfer into the readers mind.

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 have read all of Allan Folsom's previous novels and found them to be 'rip-roarng yarns'!. They have been intriguing, fast paced and had great plot lines. 'The Hadrian Memorandum' on the other hand, I have found to be extremely convoluted and the plot line too complicated. For goodness sake apart from Nicholas Martin (alias John Barron) it seems that everyone else is a 'bad guy' and on his tale in the hope of eliminating him. I am 3/4 of the way through the book and am intrigued enough to continue, but at this point the question needs to be asked: How many bad guys can you create in a novel, all with the same intent of catching up with and destroying the heroe, but all with slightly different convoluted and confusing goals for doing so? For crying out loud, on his way flying to Portugal, Marten was pursued by at least 2 other planes, with others tracking his progess from the ground! Then to really top things off, everyone became aware of each other's existence/pursuit whilst undertaking this journey thousands of feet in the air! This book had the potential to be a really good spy/espionage type novel, however,it became too bogged down with the introduction of the CIA, the Russians and so on. And, maybe I'm just simple or skim reading too much, but I have found the connections between Hadrian and SimCo are also a little vague. To Allan Folsom I say: "I look forward in anticipation of your next novel with the hope it might emulate your earlier works".

I loved Alan Folsom's very first book, The Day After Tomorrow. And I've read all his books. This one, Hadrian Memorandum, is good, but can't compete with that wonderful first novel.

After reading the other reviews for this book, I have to wonder just what people want in a book. Anyone who has read Folsom's other novels, must have a good idea of what they are in for when they start a new book of his. I confess to being a Ludlum tragic, one who loves big heavy thrillers with convoluted plots, adrenaline rushes, in your face violence, and a cabal of bad guys with mayhem on their mind. And The Hadrian Memorandum has all of these. I'm not going to go into a breakdown of the plot, that's already been done by most of the other reviewers of this book, but I will say that Folsom is the nearest thing to Ludlum that you will find today, and he writes just as well. This book is exciting and full on, and for those who like their conspiracy novels fast and furious, then this book is for you. Okay, so Folsom may take longer to explain what is happening in some instances, but that's because, like Ludlum, details are important to him and his books. The plots of his books are always are solidly grounded & the characters well established and detailed. And The Hadrian Memorandum is no exception. So get yourself a copy, sit back and put your feet up, and wallow in the pure escapism of this book. The only problen you'll have, is that when you've finished it, you'll be left with a hunger for more of the same.

A gigantic oil field is discovered off the coast of Equatorial New Guinea that rivals anything ever found. What it could do is make the USA dependent on no other country for it's oil. A U.S. oil company that controls the oil, plots to overthrow the region's government. This is when U.S President John Henry Harris decides to send his good friend, and former LAPD homicide detective Nicholas Marten, to the island to investigate.
Compared to Allan Folsom's previous novels I found this one to be just average. While a lot of the action required a suspension of belief, it still kept me entertained. I also noticed quite a few editing errors. Most thriller fans will get through it and find it somewhat exciting but overall it could have been better.

Nicholas Marten (on the run-former LAPD officer, landscape architect, personal friend of POTUS, and off the books investigator) is directed to look into what kinds of shady dealings are taking place in a newly discovered oil field in equatorial Africa.
Multiple murders, a developing civil war, mercenary-industrial conspiracies, large numbers of seriously bad villians, and innocents on the run are key elements of the story, which is too convoluted and tortured to follow with interest or enthusiasm.
The narrative seems more like a draft for an action/chase movie than a story. Dialogue is unnatural and doesn't sound like real people talking.
Not a good read. Not even distracting enough for reading on an airplane.
The book needs an editor, not just to rework the story but to check spellings, punctuation, and missing phrases.

Good, but I liked 3 other of his novels better (Day of Confession, Machiavelli Covenant, Cero Absoluto {spanish}. Like his other novels, it moves well from paragraph to paragraph. I also like his tiny bit of a surprise ending. But in this novel, there are fewer story elements. The events, plots, subplots, and characters seem fewer and less interesting. Too much time was spent racing around Portugal being chased by bad guys looking for secret photos. The main character, Marten (from other of his stories) seems to spend a lot of time discussing hypothetical situations with himself. Also, I think this is his first novel with foul language and sexy scenes. They add nothing to the story. I loved his other works, but this is fair. His expertise at making a fast-moving story is there and makes up for much of the shortcomings. His other novels blew me away; this one did not. He is still one of my favorite authors, but I felt something missing with this novel.