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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
Another shot at a “thriller” that still didn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t read the first book in the series but I do think this book gives you enough clues to kind of know what happened it the first book. But I was bored out of my mind. I had no interest in any of the characters and the plot was bizarre. This was another book for my book club and thank god this was available on audiobook at the time because I would have been pissed to have to physically read it and waste my time.
This story DRAGGED. A colleague is kidnapped, there is a $100 million ransom, and she is saved at the end. I just saved 10 hours of your life. Minimal character development, minimal plot, minimal enjoyment.
This was actually a bit of a surprise for me as it’s a Grisham book, and I usually enjoy them across the board. But this one I had some reservations about.
This story takes up with Mitch McDeere (from The Firm) 15 years after his perilous escape from a corrupt law firm in Memphis.
Now in Manhattan with his wife and children, Mitch is a partner at the world’s largest law firm and is asked to fly to Libya to document the construction of Gaddafi’s desert “bridge to nowhere” that his client is suing for payment of. Then things go seriously haywire (to say the least) and terror ensues. Mitch and his wife Abby are thrust into the middle of a sinister plot that sees them struggling to help secure an exchange involving multiple countries, millions of dollars and the safety of their own family.
Unfortunately, this didn’t give me the excitement factor that I was expecting. There’s some violence and a few harrowing moments, but mostly it felt a lot like it was trying to make a few political statements. It was rather slow in parts, and there was so much flying around in private jets that I had both whiplash and jet lag, with most of the hurried travel accomplishing nothing and seemingly unnecessary. And the denouement just fell flat for me.
I love Grisham, but for me this was not one of his best efforts.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for providing the free early arc of The Exchange for review. The opinions are strictly my own.
This story takes up with Mitch McDeere (from The Firm) 15 years after his perilous escape from a corrupt law firm in Memphis.
Now in Manhattan with his wife and children, Mitch is a partner at the world’s largest law firm and is asked to fly to Libya to document the construction of Gaddafi’s desert “bridge to nowhere” that his client is suing for payment of. Then things go seriously haywire (to say the least) and terror ensues. Mitch and his wife Abby are thrust into the middle of a sinister plot that sees them struggling to help secure an exchange involving multiple countries, millions of dollars and the safety of their own family.
Unfortunately, this didn’t give me the excitement factor that I was expecting. There’s some violence and a few harrowing moments, but mostly it felt a lot like it was trying to make a few political statements. It was rather slow in parts, and there was so much flying around in private jets that I had both whiplash and jet lag, with most of the hurried travel accomplishing nothing and seemingly unnecessary. And the denouement just fell flat for me.
I love Grisham, but for me this was not one of his best efforts.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for providing the free early arc of The Exchange for review. The opinions are strictly my own.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was a good Grisham legal thriller but not what I had hoped for I was hoping it would pick up where the Firm left off. This was really just a stand alone story with some mentions of Mitch and Abby’s life in the Firm. Overall a good read just not what you would hope for.
It was an engaging book and then the ending felt like it was rushed and so many unanswered questions!
Loved The Firm years ago and re-read it three weeks ago before reading this sequel. Glad I did! Mitch and Abby are a good team and once again, they battle the bad guys. No spoilers who the bad guys are...not who I expected. Give this one a go if you love John Grisham.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Oof. It takes a lot for me to give a book such a low rating. Coming directly off my first ever read of The Firm, I was so excited to immediately dive into the sequel to know what ever happened to Mitch and Abby after their harrowing ordeal. I was expecting the same sort of fast paced, pulse pounding, danger around every turn and having to outsmart the bad guys as the first book had, but wow was this a sore disappointment.
I have no idea what happened to Grisham’s writing in the last 35ish years, but whatever it was wasn’t good, unfortunately.
First, it felt so unrealistic and naive to me that at the end of book one, Mitch and Abby arerunning for their lives away from the biggest organized crime family in the country and by the time this book picks up, they are living public lives in NYC with Mitch literally a named partner at the biggest firm in the world . Yeah, keeping it real low key, guys. Entirely believable that after having locked up the whole firm and most of this mafia family for a decade or more, that everyone just decided to leave Mitch and his wife alone to live their perfect lives with perfect twin boys and a perfect apartment in Manhattan. Mitch spent the whole first book reiterating to the FBI and the reader that he’d never be able to come out of hiding for his entire life if he did what he promised to do. I don’t know how we get from “we won’t be safe even in witness protection” to living their real identities in one of the biggest American cities in less than a decade .
Barring all of those massive plot holes (which were sorta impossible to get over for me, but I digress), the story was just… not good. It felt like an underdeveloped first draft - I couldn’t find it in myself to care about the characters because Grisham gave you no reason to, and the “action” in this book amounted tomeetings, a lot of long flights to the same 4 places, back channel negotiations with important people who might know terrorists, and vaguely threatening phone calls to some of our “main characters” . I think that this book was the result of Grisham watching too many episodes of 24 after having a big glass of scotch and convincing himself that he could successfully branch out from legal thrillers to international terrorism and kidnapping. This resulted in the world’s most boring version of the movie Taken (but I hate to even invoke this film by name here. If you liked this movie, you will NOT like this book).
Our characters were all remarkably calm - like freakishly so - as if they’d all been parts of international terrorism plots before. They muddled through the plot with the emotions of a robot. No discussion of the grief, survivors guilt, fear, panic, and sadness they’d all be feeling at one point or another. Just hop on another plane to another meeting. No sleeping or eating and constantly negotiating with terrorists without showing any ounce of emotion is truly a feat.
Another knock to this one - there are definitely instances of covert Islamophobia and cultural disrespect towards Muslims in this book. At one point Grisham explains how the Libyan security teams all had “too difficult/complex” last names to even remember. There were odd cultural references made and it definitely portrays the Middle East, as a region, as a bad place full of extremists and terrorists. He also references “transvestite dancers.” This book was published in 2023. Everyone should know better by now.
I blew through it quickly, hoping for some sort of satisfying and fast paced resolution. Somehow the end of the book - during the biggest reveals - was the most boring. How was there not one twist? I kept waiting for some sort of connection to be made to Mitch and Abby - their lives and their past - but it seems like they were just randomly involved. Like what? What compelled Grisham to write this book and what publisher & editor felt proud to send this out the door?
I have no idea what happened to Grisham’s writing in the last 35ish years, but whatever it was wasn’t good, unfortunately.
First, it felt so unrealistic and naive to me that at the end of book one, Mitch and Abby are
Barring all of those massive plot holes (which were sorta impossible to get over for me, but I digress), the story was just… not good. It felt like an underdeveloped first draft - I couldn’t find it in myself to care about the characters because Grisham gave you no reason to, and the “action” in this book amounted to
Our characters were all remarkably calm - like freakishly so - as if they’d all been parts of international terrorism plots before. They muddled through the plot with the emotions of a robot. No discussion of the grief, survivors guilt, fear, panic, and sadness they’d all be feeling at one point or another. Just hop on another plane to another meeting. No sleeping or eating and constantly negotiating with terrorists without showing any ounce of emotion is truly a feat.
Another knock to this one - there are definitely instances of covert Islamophobia and cultural disrespect towards Muslims in this book. At one point Grisham explains how the Libyan security teams all had “too difficult/complex” last names to even remember. There were odd cultural references made and it definitely portrays the Middle East, as a region, as a bad place full of extremists and terrorists. He also references “transvestite dancers.” This book was published in 2023. Everyone should know better by now.
I blew through it quickly, hoping for some sort of satisfying and fast paced resolution. Somehow the end of the book - during the biggest reveals - was the most boring. How was there not one twist? I kept waiting for some sort of connection to be made to Mitch and Abby - their lives and their past - but it seems like they were just randomly involved. Like what? What compelled Grisham to write this book and what publisher & editor felt proud to send this out the door?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Death of parent
Very disappointing sequel to the Firm. Meetings. Meetings. Meetings. Boring. Do not recommend. Blah