It’s my first Grisham! Yay!
I read this because the majority of the action takes place in Bologna, Italy, a city with which I am enamored.
Joel Backman, aka “The Broker”, is a convicted felon. During the last hours of a disastrous presidency, the head of the CIA convinces the Arthur Morgan, the outgoing president, to issue a last-minute pardon for Joel Backman. Backman has been rotting in solitary confinement for six years, with fourteen years remaining on his sentence.
The president gives in and Backman is freed and out of the country within hours. Backman doesn’t know why he was freed, but he knows that he is not safe. It turns out that the reason Backman went to prison is that, at the time of his arrest, he was working with a lobbyist to shop some government secrets to the highest bidder. When his lobbyist buddy was murdered, Backman practically ran to federal prison to avoid the same fate.
The CIA decides to send him out of the country, give him a new identity, and keep an eye on him just long enough to find out which governments either want the info he has or to kill him for offering to sell it to their enemies six years prior.
Someone asked me if this is a courtroom drama and no, it is not. It moved at a fast clip and, despite being a despicable person, Backman’s plight is engrossing. He is free but he has no money. His CIA handlers tell him he has a month or two to learn Italian before they cut him loose to survive on his own. He has no passport and no bank account. He relies on his handler for cash and for information. This is definitely more of a spy thriller than anything else, even though Backman is a former lawyer trying to communicate with his friends and family back home without getting caught or murdered. He also has to do this when his handler is not paying attention.
I enjoyed this book, but the ending was disappointing. I wasn’t really sure what to expect though. I will read another Grisham for comparison, probably The Firm, but I’m not a total convert yet.