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.