The American Mission

April 7, 2014
Palmer, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service currently assigned to the American embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, brings his professional expertise to his debut, a timely thriller. Alex Baines, a disgraced Foreign Service employee, in an effort to revive his career, takes a job in the Congo working under his old mentor, Ambassador Howard “Spence” Spencer. Alex, whose rabble rousing in previous posts often got him in hot water, soon discovers that Spence has a suspiciously cozy relationship with the country’s dictator, President Silwamba. Both Spence and Silwamba, in turn, seem overly willing to meet the needs of Consolidated Mining, an American company with a reputation for exploiting Africa’s mineral resources. When Alex doesn’t like what he sees, his sense of justice puts him between powerful forces that have never hesitated to eliminate trouble makers. A satisfying finale and a nuanced view of the diplomatic life more than compensate for bland prose and mechanical plotting. Author tour. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Starred review from April 15, 2014
A captivating debut thriller by a longtime foreign service officer explores the complicated politics of the Congo. "Death came on horseback," the novel begins. Idealistic diplomat Alex Baines loses his security clearance over a disaster in Darfur, and he must decide between a civilian career and years of stamping visas for the State Department. Then a friend offers him a chance to restore his reputation, and Baines finds himself deep in the Congo. Nearly everyone wants to exploit that country's vast mineral riches, not least Consolidated Mining. Residents of Busu-Mouli already have a modest mine along the Congo River, but Consolidated wants to take over and strip the mountain to rubble. The company has important political support, and Baines stands with Busu-Mouli's Chief Tsiolo and his daughter, Marie, to oppose the area's rape. An exciting story unfolds that's filled with intrigue, murder and even romance. Will the country's people gain from its riches, or will they have to watch helplessly while foreigners continue to despoil it as they have for a century? "We do have ways of exercising our rights in eastern Congo," says one Consolidated company man, and those ways include guns. Palmer uses his deep knowledge of Africa and diplomacy to construct a multilayered tale about the search for peace and justice in a country that has seen little of either since Belgium's King Leopold made it his private preserve in the 1880s. Both foreigners and Congolese are villains and heroes here, though the real power still lies outside the country. With their intelligence and humanity, Alex and Marie are easy characters to root for--but even the bad guys are well-drawn and believable. This is first-rate fiction. Let's hope Palmer has a sequel in the works.

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May 1, 2014
Palmer's first novel offers an insider's look at the world of American diplomats stationed in foreign countries. He lived the role for 20 years, so Palmer knows the subject cold. His brother, Daniel, and his late father, Michael, are both accomplished thriller writers, so an ability to write crime fiction clearly runs in the family. Alex Baines works in the U.S. State Department, but he is helpless to intervene when a massacre occurs in Darfur in 2006. Years later, his career in shambles, an opportunity lands in his lap to start over and recover his reputation. Unfortunately, a moral quandary quickly develops: what appears to be in the best interest of his job and career may not be good for the people of the Congo. Palmer creates full-bodied characters and an intriguing story that showcases the difficult choices ambassadors face on a daily basis. Pair this one with John le Carr''s The Constant Gardener (2001).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)