The Exchange

 

The Firm was John Grisham’s second book and it was hugely successful, published in 1991, and after writing many bestselling novels since then, in 2023 Grisham chose to write the sequel, The Exchange. After the surprise decision to take the lucrative offer at a Memphis firm rather than to take an offer from one of the blue blood firms that had made offers to Mitch McDeere, who finished fourth in his Harvard Law School class, Mitch and his wife Abby settled into life in Memphis. It was then that he discovered the vast corruption in which his firm was engaged. Risking his life McDeere turned to the Feds for help. Such was the subject of The Firm. So what happened to Mitch and Abby since then? Meanwhile, the firm in Memphis ended up with all its members in jail for long prison terms.

 

The Exchange takes place 15 years later, in 2005. Mitch and Abby had fled the country until they decided it was time to return to the U.S. to start a family. Mitch chose to go back to the law, but this time he was hired by the largest law firm in the world and he began working in their Manhattan office. Ever the rebel, Mitch took advantage of the firm’s “no dress code” policy. He grew a beard and wore a ponytail, and he typically went to the office in jeans. But, Mitch was a star and quickly ascended to the position of partner, and he was close to the senior partner and founder of the firm, Luca Sandroni who was dying of cancer.

 

It was only Luca who could persuade Mitch to take on a case that led him back to Memphis, a place he said he would never go again. Luca was big into pro bono work, and the case was a longshot deal to try to save the life of a man who was due to be executed in 90 days. In fact, the man committed suicide before the efforts to save him could occur. But, that put Mitch even closer to Luca in his dying days. He asked Mitch for another favor. Mitch was being sent on an international adventure to Libya where he was to try to collect money from Muammar Gaddafi that was due to the firm. The favor was for Mitch to take Luca’s daughter along. Luca was worried that Giovanna was getting tired of the law and was about to leave the firm, and she was asking to be involved in this effort, despite the known dangers of Libya. Not only was Gaddafi a lawless psychopath, but there were armed and militant tribes Libya which even Gaddafi could not control. It was one of those tribes that abducted Giovanna for ransom for $100,000,000.

 

Unexpectedly, Abby was pulled into the scene as the person who had to deliver the money in order to collect Giovanna. During her time since living in Memphis, Abby had become a successful publisher of cookbooks, and she had absolutely no background for the task she was being asked to complete. How does one cobble together $100k when the insurance company refused to pay on the claim and when the other wealthy partners refused to risk their own wealth to save Luca’s daughter?

 

I’ve always thought Grisham’s best writing was about legal battles and courtroom drama. He did write about some interesting issues in international law in this book, but there was little courtroom action. However, Grisham has another winner on his hands. I thoroughly enjoyed this effort, and I devoured this book in audio format rather than the usual way. It gets my 5/5 rating.