Reviews - The Exchange | The StoryGraph

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770 reviews for:

The Exchange

John Grisham

3.2 AVERAGE

ashisbookshelf's review

3.0

mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

stevencard's review

3.5

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

lemanley's review

4.0

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

sheldon1979's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Mitch McDeere is back working as a lawyer working for Scully & Pershing a large Law Firm who had 31 offices all over the world. And he is required to take over a case for a construction firm who needs to have someone continue their claim of $400 million dollars for non-payment of a Bridge Construction in Libya.

So tasked with a site visit him and the Rome VP Luca decides that Luca's daughter Giovanni help Mitch with the case and visit the site also. Whilst in the country Mitch gets food poisoning and can't go on the visit. So Giovanni goes instead but she is kidnapped along side the security detail that was hired to look after her and Mitch.

Abby McDeere, Mitch's wife is contacted by someone in a cafe and advised to keep close to her phone for more details on getting her back. And they demand $100 million dollars in exchange for the hostage. Can Mitch convinve his new firm and the countries affected to pay money for her safe return.

What follows is their struggles in 10 days to achieve a tall order to gather the money or they will kill her...

stephanie_garrott's review against another edition

3.0

tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

fritomonk's review

2.0

SPOILERS!!! Normally I try to write reviews that don't contain any spoilers, or at least very few. I am going to make a HUGE exception when it comes to this review. The Exchange: After the Firm was written 30 years after the original publication of The Firm, but the story takes place 15 years from the original book. Since the book and the movie versions of The Firm differed in the endings, there is a conundrum. In the book version, Mitch took down his old firm along with the Mob and then skipped out on the FBI after taking 10 million dollars of Mob money and hiding it away in the Caymans. All throughout the first book, the reader is lead to believe the Mob never forgets..... So as I began to read The Exchange, I just knew the Mob was going to pop up at some point... aren't they? Back to the sequel... Mitch and Abbey are now living in New York City with their two sons. Mitch, who was done with law firms the last time we saw him in print, is now working for the BIGGEST law firm in the world with offices all over the globe. Abbey did change jobs and is a book editor specializing in cookbooks. Apparently the McDeere's spent time in Italy before Mitch decided he had to go back to practicing law for a large firm. The premise of the book is quite simple.... another employee of this new Big International firm is kidnapped in a foreign country, by unknown kidnappers and they have chosen the McDeere's to help broker a hostage exchange. So surely the Mob or some part of the U.S gov't is behind this... that's why it is a sequel to the Firm... isn't it? Fun Fact: I used to work for a small Defense Contractor in the 1990s.... we had to sign a form that stated if we were ever taken hostage for a ransom, in a foreign country, that our employment was terminated. Certainly the world's largest law firm has similar practices... doesn't it? Anyway, I have absolutely no idea why this book is a sequel to The Firm. It could have been written with other characters and made about as much sense. Mitch travels by airplane the same way most people travel by car, I wish I had his frequent flyer miles! The overall story was just not that appealing to me and really disappointing. Maybe that is why we have recurring characters for this book, to try to make up for the rest of the storyline. Unfortunately, I think it made it even worse, especially the conclusion. John Grisham is a great writer, unfortunately this is probably one of his most dissatisfying works of literature. Read at your own risk!