Uninspired storyline and a predictable plot. Ho hum machinations to set up an unsurprising kidnapping. The book opens with a much more interesting plot (that is almost immediately discarded): rogue DEA investigators assassinating suspected drug dealers.

I'm certainly unconvinced Grisham should try to write 'sequels'. The novelty he brings to his stand-alone legal suspense stories is his strongest suit. The saga of the Libyan escapade didn't feel fresh in terms of lawyerly involvement and such a theme is regrettably very stale these days. ( )

The Exchange by John Grisham

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
Print: COPYRIGHT ©: 10/17/2023; ISBN: 978-0385548953; PUBLISHER: Doubleday (Random House); PAGES: 352; UNABRIDGED; (Info from Amazon.com)
Digital: ©: 10/17/2023; ISBN: 9780385548960; PUBLISHER: Doubleday; PAGES: 339; Unabridged (Info from Amazon.com)
*Audio: COPYRIGHT ©: 10/17/2023; PUBLISHER: Random House Audio; DURATION: 9:01:00; Unabridged; (Info from Amazon.com)

Feature Film or tv: Not yet

SERIES: Sequel to The Firm

MAIN CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive, and spelling could be wrong)
Mitch McDeere – Law school recent graduate, new hire at the law firm
Abbie McDeere (sp?) – Wife of Mitch, school teacher
Lamar Quinn – Lawyer – Former associate at the Bendini law firm

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
SELECTED: I’ve been taking Grisham’s books in the order they were written, but seeing this was the next in line in a “series” perspective, I skipped ahead to hear the next in the Mitch and Abby McDeere series.
ABOUT: No, this is a new book. You know enough just knowing that it follows “The Firm”, I’m not feeling inclined to give anything away.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: We were a little worried there might be too much emotional trauma in this one, but we decided we could take it. Good story.

AUTHOR:
John Grisham:
From Wikipedia:
“Grisham, the second of five children, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda (née Skidmore) and John Ray Grisham.[6] His father was a construction worker and a cotton farmer, and his mother was a homemaker.[9] When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee.[6]
As a child, he wanted to be a baseball player.[8] As noted in the foreword to Calico Joe, Grisham gave up playing baseball at the age of 18, after a game in which a pitcher aimed a beanball at him, and narrowly missed doing the young Grisham grave harm.
Although Grisham's parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and prepare for college.[1] He drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House.[6] Grisham started working for a plant nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for $1.00 an hour. He was soon promoted to a fence crew for $1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job: "there was no future in it". At 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he "never drew inspiration from that miserable work".[10]
Through one of his father's contacts, he managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him "serious" about college. A fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained the perpetrators. He hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store men's underwear section, which he described as "humiliating". By this time, Grisham was halfway through college. Planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by "the complexity and lunacy" of it. He decided to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer.[11]
He attended the Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi and later attended Delta State University in Cleveland.[6] Grisham changed colleges three times before completing a degree.[1] He eventually graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977, receiving a B.S. degree in accounting. He later enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law to become a tax lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation. He graduated in 1981 with a J.D. degree.[6]
After leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford.[12]”

NARRATOR:
Edoardo Ballerini-
From Wikipedia:
“Edoardo Ballerini (born March 20, 1970) is an American actor, narrator, writer, and film director. On screen he is best known for his work as junkie Corky Caporale in The Sopranos and the hotheaded chef in the indie film Dinner Rush (2001). Ballerini is a two-time winner of the Audio Publishers Association's Best Male Narrator Audie Award (2013, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter; 2019 Watchers by Dean Koontz) and the co-author of the Audible Original "The Angel of Rome" (2021), with Jess Walter. His directorial debut, Good Night Valentino, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.[1]

Edoardo Ballerini does a great job here. Wikipedia also mentions that he’s thought of as the voice of God for his narration of the Hebrew Bible. I have listened a little to that audio book, but wanted to be able to really concentrate on it, and have my Bible with me when I listened for comparison. I hadn’t remembered he was the narrator. Now I want to get back to listening to it!

GENRE:
Fiction; Suspense; Thriller; Mystery; Legal Thriller

TIME FRAME:
Contemporary (2023)

LOCATION(S):
New York

SUBJECTS:
Abduction; Money transfers; Fund raising

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1,
“On the forty-eighth floor of a glistening tower on the southern tip of Manhattan, Mitch McDeere stood alone in his office and gazed out the window at Battery Park and the busy waters beyond. /boats of all shapes and sizes crisscrossed the harbor. Massive cargo ships laden with containers waited almost motionless. The Staten Island Ferry inched past Ellis Island. A cruise ship packed with tourists headed out to sea. A mega yaght was making a splendid entrance into the city. A brave soul on a fifteen-foot catamaran zigzagged about, dodging everything. A thousand feet above the water no fewer than five helicopters buzzed about like angry hornets. In the far distance, trucks on the Verrazano Bridge stood still, bumper to bumper. Lady Liberty watched it all from her majestic perch. It was a spectacular day. Occasionally he succeeded, but most days were too hectic to allow time for such loafing. He was on the clock, his life was ruled by it, just like the hundreds of other lawyers in the building. Scully and Pershing had over two thousand scattered around the world and vainly considered itself to be the premier international firm on the planet. Its New York partners, and Mitch was one, rewarded themselves with larger offices in the heart of the financial district. The firm was now a hundred years old and reeked of prestige, power, and money.”

RATING:.
4.5

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
10/22/2023-11/3/2023 ( )

Mitch McDeere and his lawyer partner, Giovanna go to Libya to view a project of one of their clients. Giovanna is kidnapped. As demands are made, Mitch spends his time trying to meet their demands for money. The kidnappers keep threatening that if their demands are not met they kill Giovanna as they did with her security team and driver. The law partners are having difficulty raising the huge sum of money demanded by the kidnappers. To complicate matters, Abby, Mitch's wife was contacted by the kidnappers and must act as go-between. Mitch worries about Abby's safety and what will happen if the money is not raised. ( )

The Exchange, John Grisham, Edoardo Ballerini, narrator
In this supposed sequel to “The Firm”, Mitch and Abby McDeere return. More than a decade later, they are now living in NYC. He is working for the largest law firm in the world, and she is an executive in the publishing industry. Their twins are thriving.
When the novel begins, a lawyer in Mitch’s firm asks him to help on a case in Memphis, the city he had fled after exposing the crimes of the firm he had worked for there. He is asked to help to stay the execution of a convicted murderer. Before he can begin, however, the man supposedly commits suicide. This theme is dropped, as I assume it is only brought up to review the origin of Mitch’s law career and the first novel in which he is introduced.
When this case is no longer necessary, he is called to Rome to help a close friend and lawyer, Luca. Luca is dying from an incurable cancer and does not have much time left to live. He wants Mitch to help settle the lawsuit between a Turkish construction company that he represents and Libya. Libya is refusing to pay the bill for the bridge the company built in the desert. Luca asks him to go to Libya to and to hire his daughter, Giovanna, to help. She works for the same company as Mitch, in another location, but he senses that she is unhappy and bored with the law.
When Mitch and Giovanna go to Libya, he becomes very ill almost immediately and cannot visit the bridge location. Luca’s daughter volunteers to go instead. Violence follows the group at a checkpoint. Who kidnapped her? Was it the enemies of Mitch, enemies of the Turkish Company, enemies of Mitch’s firm, terrorists, or possibly Qaddafi?
The story gets mired down in meetings and the mundane. Will she be rescued? Will she be ransomed? Why was she kidnapped? Is it a crime of convenience? Do you negotiate with terrorist? Is it moral not to do so if you can save a life or is negotiating with terrorists, paying them to save the victims which then empowers them to create more havoc, amoral? The story feels thin, and I am not sure this book answers any of the questions it raises. The book feels like it is drowning in the minutiae of unnecessary details. ( )

Read "The Firm" so long ago that I can't remember much but this is a "follow-up" but still readable on its own. Mitch McDeere is a highly paid lawyer in New York City working for one of the largest international law firms. (The Firm had him in Memphis working in a corrupt law firm). His boss gives him the case of an international dispute between a Turkish construction company and the government of Libya; the Turkish company built a "bridge to nowhere" in Libya, now the country led by Gaddafi. Mitch leaves his wife, Abby in New York with their young twin sons and heads to Rome to meet with an old mentor who is dying, Mitch gets involved with an international legal and dangerous struggle.

Much of the story is set in Rome or in Libya which makes it especially interesting. Mitch's mentor's beautiful daughter, who is also a lawyer in London is kidnapped and a most of the story involves finding the ransom money which eventually Abby delivers.

A good, fun, quick read - typical Grishom! ( )