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| Categories | Thrillers & Suspense |
| Author | John Grisham |
| Publisher | Doubleday (October 17, 2023) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 464 pages |
| Item Weight | 15.4 ounces |
| Dimensions |
6 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches |
I. Book introduction
The Exchange: After The Firm is a legal thriller novel by John Grisham, serving as a sequel to his famous work The Firm. The book delves into the life of Mitch McDeere, the protagonist of The Firm, exploring his new challenges fifteen years after the events of the first novel.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ⢠John Grisham delivers high-flying international suspense in a stunning new legal thriller that marks the return of Mitch McDeere, the brilliant hero of The Firm.
What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in The Exchange, the riveting sequel to The Firm, the blockbuster thriller that launched the career of Americaâs favorite storyteller. It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implicationsâand once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time thereâs nowhere to hide.
Plot
Set fifteen years after The Firm, the story revolves around Mitch McDeere and his life in Manhattan. Now a partner at the world’s largest law firm, Scully and Pershing, Mitch faces a complicated legal challenge when his mentor, Luca Sandroni, asks him to take over a case involving the Libyan government. The case, initially handled by Luca who is dying of pancreatic cancer, concerns a Turkish construction company’s lawsuit against the Libyan government over unpaid dues for building the Great Gaddafi Bridge. As Mitch and Giovanna, Luca’s daughter and a colleague, delve into the case, they find themselves entangled in a dangerous situation involving kidnapping and a sinister plot with global implications.
About John Grisham
John Grisham (born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 28 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing.
Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practised criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990.
Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. Grisham’s first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. The book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, and a 2012 TV series which continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. Seven of his other novels have also been adapted into films:
- The Chamber,
- The Client,
- A Painted House,
- The Pelican Brief,
- The Rainmaker,
- The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John Girsham lives on a farm in central Virginia.
II. Reviewer: The Exchange
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1. KAY reviews for The Exchange
Not bad! I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would.
It’s 2004, Mitch and Abby McDeere resurface after being on the run. Mitch works for a prestigious multi-national law firm in NYC. His wife Abby is a cookbook editor and they have twin boys.
Luca Sandroni, a senior partner in Rome’s office is diagnosed with cancer with months to live. Luca passes a high profile case involving the Libyan government and a Turkish contractor to Mitch.
Mitch and Giovanna, an associate (Luca’s daughter) travel to Libya but shortly she is abducted and $100 million is demanded in exchange for her safe return. This is when the story takes off, well sort of.
I wish the story stayed in Memphis when Mitch’s assigned to a pro bono case!! He traveled there to meet a “client” who was on death row. Turns out the supposed client hung himself and that was that. đ¤
Why didn’t Grisham expand that storyline? Maybe kill his old colleague, whatever his name from book one then have Mitch mixed up with another criminal enterprise. đ¤ˇââď¸
The Firm was not about courtroom scene so I can’t complain that the Exchange doesn’t have one. However, The Firm involves more rotten lawyers with much more “lawyer speak” than book two. Grisham could’ve used a new character for this book. I still had fun and finished in two sittings. 3.5â
__
Apr 18, 2023
omg omg!!
2. JUDY reviews for The Exchange
John Grisham is my favorite author for legal thrillers. His books never fail to keep my eyes glued to the pages as the drama unfolds. Many ethical and moral dilemmas are always brought forth with different character interpretations of what is right. This one involved international intrigue with law firms in several countries and lots of flying back and forth from country to country with negotiations happening everywhere it seemed.
Description:
What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in The Exchange, the riveting sequel to The Firm, the blockbuster thriller that launched the career of Americaâs favorite storyteller. It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implicationsâand once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time thereâs nowhere to hide.
My Thoughts:
This book has a lot of characters and a lot of details to keep track of what is going on. Not a problem as everything is front and center and about as dramatic and traumatic as it could be. The characters are vivid and come alive on the page. Mitch is once again in the center of a hurricane trying to hold everything together. There were definitely some things that were hard to believe – like how did Mitch get a license to practice law again? Why in the world was Abby picked as the go between by the kidnappers? You just have to suspend belief and go with the story. It was an engrossing read and I enjoyed it. I liked The Firm more though.
Thanks to Doubleday Books through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on October 17, 2023.
3. HENRY reviews for The Exchange
A very worthy sequel to The Firm. Grisham’s novels tell stories and he does it extremely well. His prose is clear and crisp and realistic. The Exchange, his latest bestseller of many, is a thriller without today’s usual elements in that genre–crazy Russians, complicated unbelievable plots, shoot em ups, hair raising chases, and endless descriptions of weapons. Words are the weapons in this story and they make for a thrilling novel.
4. MARY ANN reviews for The Exchange
First of all, revisiting Mitch and Abbie from The Firm is an excellent idea. Throughout the years, all of Grisham’s novels have well-formed, interesting characters. Bringing them back with what follows in their lives is an excellent idea. It’s like catching up with old friends. As usual, Grisham can write. His characters, locations and plot always have just enough information to form complete pictures in the reader’s mind, without going to boring extremes. He writes about things he knows, and it shows. So why only four stars? Occasionally, the story seems more like reading a journal than following a story. And keeping it real, I didn’t really love Mitch and Abbie. It’s like intellectually they learned from their mistakes, but when things got tough, expediency rules. Mitch and Abbie were really quite predictable. I found myself wanting to know more about the terrorist liaisons and Abbie’s guard. What motivated them? What’s their side of the plot and the story? All that being said, I do hope Grisham goes back to some of his other characters. They’re often just too interesting to keep on a shelf.
5. ROBERT JAMES VANDEVOORT reviews for The Exchange
WOW! The Exchange by author John Grishman is simply the Best of all his novels!
Has anyone seen my socks? When finishing John Grishamâs recent novel âThe Exchangeâ, the story absolutely blew my socks off. For this reader, this is simply the best novel he has written.
Mitch and Abby McDeere are back. This time they are back in a big way. Mitch is now a partner of the largest law firm in the world. They have offices throughout the world with the headquarters in Manhattan.
They represent Lannak, a Turkish construction company, that has done a number of projects in Libya. The latest project is a massive bridge that was supposed to have a river of water underneath it, but instead it is a river of sand. The massive project was thought up by Colonel Gaddafi himself. The challenge for Mitch is that the Colonel has lost interest in the project and thus has not paid the Turkish company.
Jack Ruch, the top man at Scully & Pershing, wants Mitch to go to Libya and appraise the situation. Jack takes with him a beautiful Italian woman who works at their UK office. Giovannaâs father is the head partner in Italy. His daughter wanted to get out of the office and work with Scully & Pershingâs international clients. Her first assignment is with Mitch in Libya.
The plan is to first go to the bridge project and get a better understanding of the situation from the onsite managers of Lannak. Sometimes plans simply do not work the way they were meant to, especially in third world countries. What really appealed to this reader was the international aspect of dealing in the third world. This readerâs career was outside the United States, and he still has memories of third world countries, especially Pakistan, that he would like to forget.
âThe Exchangeâ is the sequel to the author Grishamâs second novel âThe Firmâ which was published in 1991. This reader read âThe Firmâ over three nights in Tokyo in September, 1993. A re-read of that novel is now imperative.
6. DECANO reviews for The Exchange
A writer as prolific as John Gresham has ups and downs like the rest of us, although his books are always entertaining page turners. The Exchange is among his very finest works. It keeps the reader on the edge of his/her seat and is painfully believable in current times. The return of the likable and humane Mitch and Abby from The Firm is handled skillfully. Other characters are also well drawn. One is literally uncertain of the outcome until nearly the last page, and one cares a great deal about it. A tour de force.
7. SCOTT reviews for The Exchange
As I have described in previous book reviews, it is time for one of my annual late Fall rituals. The leaves are falling (or if you are in Seattle, the rain is falling). College football is in full gear and the winter holidays are starting. Itâs time to build a fire in our fireplace, open the new John Grisham novel, âThe Exchangeâ, and escape into the legal world of thriller fiction.
Over the last couple of years, Grisham has been changing things up and trying new approaches rather than just relying on his normal underdog-do-gooder fighting the evil and powerful corporate villains. Last year it was a trip back in time to the crime and corruption on the Mississippi coast from the 1940âs to the 19080âs. This year he revisits the past as well as explores a new type of legal thriller.
âThe Exchangeâ brings back Mitch and Abby McDeere, the young couple from Grishamâs first breakthrough novel âThe Firmâ published back in 1991. âThe Firmâ told Mitch and Abbyâs story of joining the Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke following Mitchâs graduation from Harvard Law School. However, the firm was set-up by the mafia to launder illegal money and evade taxes. After the two of them discover the awful secret, their lives are at risk as they try to expose the crimes and flee to safety. âThe Firmâ was mega-bestseller, launching Grishamâs super-successful career as a legal thriller writer, and a hit movie starring Tom Cruise probably helped contribute some too.
In the Authorâs Note at the end of âThe Exchangeâ Grisham comments that his readers over the years continue to write to him asking âWill we ever see Mitch and Abby again?â The answer is yes, and 32 years later we the follow-up âThe Exchangeâ to find out what happened to our two fictional heroes.
Now, there are a few interesting things about âThe Exchangeâ and how the book is being marketed. First, the it takes place 15 years after the first one, in 2005. The second item of note is that the book cover doesnât really tell you what the sequel is about. It does two things. It lets you know that Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, New York, and that Mitch is a partner in the largest law firm in the world (thatâs probably not a surprise). It also teases the new storyline with a vague description that Mitch will find himself in the middle of a âsinister plotâ with âworldwide implicationsâ and that âthis time thereâs nowhere to hideâ.
When I read the book jacket, I really glossed over that and didnât really realize that the plot specifics were being held back. When I started reading the book, and things got going, I started to understand that cover description was holding back on purpose. I truly was better off not knowing more about the storylines beforehand. And I am going to do the same, and stay away from sharing the overall plotline so that you can have the same sense of discovery and enjoyment in your reading experience. What an excellent marketing approach â focus on the return of Mitch and Abby without giving anything away about what the new story is about. We, as readers, are so excited to have them return, that this could have almost been a cookbook and we still would have bought it. Sorry, thatâs also an inside joke youâll understand after reading it.
It also allows (and here I tread lightly) Grisham to continue his exploration of new areas of the law to explore. Without giving too much away, Grisham expands his scope of the law into international geo-political spectrums. This is what I would refer to as an international political/legal thriller. It is a new and interesting flavor for his readers that it worth taking. Throughout he still sprinkles in his personal views on capital punishment, solitary confinement, and the value of someoneâs life in ways that you know are personal and dear to him. Trust me, you are never bored with a Grisham novel, and that is true with this one.
The key to Grishamâs success as a writer, shines through in this book. He is a master storyteller and his writing style just demands your attention is such a fluid and effortless manner. His descriptions are brief, focused, and vivid. His dialogs are sharp and flow like a Robert B. Parker Spenser novel at its best. More importantly. Like Stephen King, Grisham is a pure in heart storyteller, and his storytelling skills are pretty flawless â smooth and flowing prose with no wasted or unnecessary words, a constant focus on moving the conflict forward while pulling on your emotional heart strings.
I especially appreciated that Abbyâs role was expanded and she played an essential part in the storylines. She and Mitch were equal partners and her role was just as important as his. I also like the continued use of the Scully & Pershing law firm by Grisham. Itâs Mitchâs firm in this book, but was also the firm in Grishamâs previous novels âThe Associateâ and âGray Mountainâ.
Overall, âThe Exchangeâ was another enjoyable fall outing with one of my favorite authors. For me, Grisham sets such a high bar for his readers that sometimes itâs hard to review his work with full objectively, since beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I believe that that the key to Grishamâs continued success is his exemplary power to tell a captivating tale and this one was, although different in scope and focus, was still a strong and well-delivered read.
See you again next year, my author friend and master storyteller⌠I canât wait⌠And who knows if and when Mitch and Abby may show up againâŚ
8. LORNA reviews for The Exchange
The Exchange is the latest legal thriller by John Grisham. For all of us who enjoyed The Firm both in book and film format, this sequel continues the story of Mitch and Abby McDeere. Last seen as they were fleeing for their lives from the corrupt and mob-controlled Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert, & Locke after exposing their crimes. This book will answer what their lives have been like for the last fifteen years. It unfolds at a rapid pace in this sequel by one of my favorite storytellers. We find Mitch and Abby now living in Manhattan where Mitch McDeere is a partner in one of the largest law firms in the world. Scully & Pershing had over two thousand lawyers scattered around the world, considering itself to be the premiere international law firm. Summoned by an old mentor to Rome, Mitch McDeere is drawn into a sinister plot having world wide and dangerous implications for many colleagues, friends, and family. This was a riveting narrative that I could not put down with its many twists and turns. Grisham is an expert in his many legal thrillers. This was a great sequel, and I would love to see another book about the McDeeres.
9. MANDY WHITE reviews for The Exchange
Mitch McDeere is back! 15 years after the events of the Firm, Mitch and Abby are happy and living the good life in Manhattan. But all that is about to be turned on itâs head when a client in Rome asks Mitch to take over a case for him in Libya.
I loved being back in Mitchâs world again. The Firm is still on of my favourite Grisham novels. If you havenât read it, never fear, the author gives us enough recap in the first few chapters for you to understand what is happening and why. If you are a fan of legal thrillers you know how good John Grisham is at writing the twisty and intense stories.
Mitch and his colleagues are forever travelling the world in the name of work. From New York to London to Rome to Marrakech and Libya, you certainly get your frequent flyer points up in The Exchange. It is a fast paced and exciting journey around the world and I loved every minute of it.
Thank you so much to Hachette Australia for sending me this copy to read. I would have done a happy dance if my knee would have allowed it đ
10. DANA reviews for The Exchange
{4.5 stars}
Mitch McDeere is back and he finds himself ensnared in another unusual situation. After his time on the run after bringing down his previous law firm, he’s settled into regular lawyer life at a nice firm in NYC. When his former mentor in Rome falls ill, he asks Mitch to take on a case in Libya, which includes a trip there much to Mitch’s chagrin. He and his mentor’s daughter travel to Tripoli and immediately find themselves in peril. He manages to escape but his friend’s daughter is taken hostage for ransom. Now Mitch and Abby must find a way to save her.
This one had great heist vibes and it held true to the pulse pounding tension of the original The Firm. There are no courtroom scenes, as has been par for the recent Grisham novels but there was enough legal scenarios that I think the average Grisham reader will be entertained. What I appreciated the most was that it all felt very realistic and not far fetched even though there was the need to drum up an insane amount of money. I loved that both Mitch and Abby got into the action at different times. There were lots of moving parts and politics but I was never bored by the machinations. I actually found myself not wanting to put it down, and it’s been a while since I felt that way about a Grisham novel. Now if we can only get a sequel to The Rainmaker…
Thanks to Doubleday for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.
III. The Exchange Quotes
The best book quotes from The Exchange by John Grisham
âIf there was a worse cancer he was not aware of it.â
âHis name is Tad Kearny and heâs got ninety days. A month ago he made the strange decision to fire his lawyers, all of them, and he had quite a team.â
âOur generals get the best of everything in Libya.â
âwho was six hours ahead,â
âMoroccan time was four hours ahead of New York.â
âGot it.â Where the hell was north?â
âLuca and his team worked hard and enjoyed the prestige and money, but they were Italians and refused to succumb to the workaholism expected by the Americans.â
Excerpted from The Exchange by John Grisham
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