The Exchange

I just finished reading John Grisham's The Exchange, the sequel to The Firm, the book that launched Grisham's career. Since I had never even perused The Firm, I checked it out and read it while I was on the waiting list for The Exchange at the Denver Public Library. It told the story of Mitch McDeere, who took a job at a small Memphis law firm after graduating from Harvard Law School, with salary and benefits too good to be true. He and his wife Abby soon find out he is working for a firm owned by the Mafia, whose real purpose was to launder money. Lots of money. The FBI forces McDeere to copy and produce the firm's incriminating files, making for a very tense finale. The Exchange takes place 15 years later, after the repercussions from the events in Memphis die down, and Mitch is currently a partner at a New York law firm that is the largest in the world. He agrees to take a case involving civil litigation by a Turkish company against the government of Libya. After arriving there on a fact-finding trip, his fellow attorney is kidnapped and held hostage by terrorists, setting off a desperate effort to free her. I actually enjoyed this novel far more than The Firm, and recommend putting your name in for it at the library. Although if you order it from the Denver Public Library (DPL), expect about a 6 month wait.