Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (Trade Paperback – 17/10/23)

Series: The Firm – Book Two

Length: 338 pages

My Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

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John Grisham presents an intriguing sequel to one of his best-known books with his latest release, The Exchange.

Grisham is a talented and well-respected author who needs very little introduction after wowing audiences for years with books (and their movie adaptations) such as The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury and A Time to Kill.  I personally came into Grisham’s novels a bit later than I probably should have, but I have had fun reading some of his latest releases such as The Judge’s List, The Boys from Biloxi and Sparring Partners.  I had a wonderful time with each of those books and I now make sure to grab the latest Grisham novel whenever they come out.  As such, I made sure to get a copy of Grisham’s new release, The Exchange, a fantastic legal thriller that serves as a sequel to one of his best-known novels, The Firm.

15 years ago, Mitch and Abby McDeere exposed the crimes of a corrupt Memphis law firm and its mobster clients, fleeing the country with a stash of the firm’s crooked money.  After spending years abroad in Europe fearing potential retribution, the McDeeres finally returned to America, taking up residence in New York, far away from their troubled past in Memphis.

Now, Mitch works as a partner in one of the biggest law firms in the world, sent to troubleshoot some of its most difficult cases.  A request from an old friend sees Mitch travel to Libya, where a Turkish construction company is suing the tyrannical Libyan government over failure to pay an extensive bill.  This is far from a routine case, and Mitch soon finds out just how dangerous that part of the world is when one of the firm’s young associates is kidnapped in a bloody attack.

Determined to save his associate before she is killed, Mitch desperately utilises all his contacts and legal knowhow to raise the ransom money needed and encourage governments to intervene.  However, the organisation that kidnapped the young woman is far more dangerous than anyone expected, and they soon launch a series of attacks against Mitch’s new firm while demanding an extravagant amount of money.  With his own family caught in the crossfire, Mitch must unwind the turbulent politics surrounding this event if he is to save everyone he cares about.

I must admit that I had some mixed feelings when it came to The Exchange, and it honestly wasn’t my favourite Grisham novel.  Let us start with what I liked about The Exchange, which for the most part was a pretty fun and exciting read.

Grisham wrote an intriguing and fast-paced narrative for The Exchange that is really easy to get into and proves very hard to put down in places.  There is a great set-up surrounding the Libyan deal, and it was fascinating to have a book set in Libya in 2005 during the Gaddafi regime.  Grisham ratchets up the tension early, as you know something bad is going to happen, and when it does, Grisham does not hold back with the brutality and violence.  The second half of the book, which primarily follows the protagonist as he uses all his contacts to try and negotiate for his colleague’s release, is also quite fascinating, and you can feel the fear and desperation of the characters, especially when Mitch’s family is brought into the situation.  Add into this the complex characters and the compelling, detailed and highly cynical examination of life in one of the world’s biggest law firms (in this case, a fictional law firm which has appeared in prior Grisham novels), and The Exchange has a lot going for it.

While I found it exiting and captivating to read, and I enjoyed a lot of how this story came together, most of my dissatisfaction came from the conclusion.  I won’t go into a lot of detail here to avoid spoilers, but frankly I found the end of the book to be rather underwhelming and a little lazy.  Despite setting up some intriguing storylines at the start that could have resulted in a great and engaging conclusion, Grisham instead chose to just resolve the storyline in a predictable manner and leave a lot of stuff hanging.  There are so many unanswered questions left over as a result, especially when it comes to the means and motive of the antagonists, and I was honestly surprised that Grisham did not tie it into the plot of The Firm somehow.  Frankly, this lacklustre conclusion put a damper on my enjoyment of The Exchange as a whole and I was a little disappointed about not getting a satisfying ending.

Another major element of the book that I am not sure hit home completely for me was its connections to Grisham’s previous novel The Firm.  I must admit upfront that I haven’t read The Firm, but I honestly don’t think The Exchange’s story really benefited from being a sequel.  While I am sure that some Grisham fans really appreciated getting a continuation of the McDeeres’s story, it didn’t do a lot for me.  For example, the first 50 or so pages are dedicated to Mitch returning to Memphis for the first time since the events of The Firm, which does serve as a good bridging element for new readers.  However, this opening scene had no connections to the main plot of the book, and it was just so unnecessary in hindsight.  I also never really connected to Mitch and his family throughout the course of The Exchange’s story, and it might have been better if Grisham had introduced an original protagonist instead.  Still, the author did do a good job of recapping the key events of The Firm to new readers, and I am sure dedicated Grisham fans will appreciate this interesting continuation after all these years.

While I did have a bunch of issues with The Exchange, I think overall it was a good book by Grisham and I did have a fun time reading it.  Much of the plot is very exciting and well set out, and there are some truly fascinating elements to it.  Probably best read by those fans of Grisham’s style and prior novels (especially The Firm), The Exchange is well worth a read, but I just wish it had a better ending.

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