The Broker or learning Italian in 345 pages. Review on Broker, The - John Grisham

The Broker or learning Italian in 345 pages

In 'The Broker' you see flashes of the John Grisham of the great Grisham books past.

Oh how you long for a redux of the mind blowing 'The Partner' and thrillers like 'The Client' and 'A Time to Kill'.

I would even settle for the well written 'A Painted House' and my personal favourite 'The Rainmaker'

Although much better than the disaster called 'The Last Juror' and the stinker called 'The Summons', it is still not up there with the best of Grisham.

The beginning and ending are slick and hold your attention.

The middle acts are however like the stock market on the days the bears run amuck. It sinks and sinks and then comes back up in the end.

The story involved around one Joel Backman, one of the most powerful lawyer/lobbyist/power broker in Washington DC.

Three Pakistanis hackers hack into an ultra secret satellite system and gain total control of it. They want to sell their control software to the highest bidder and approach the broker.

However, all hell breaks loose and the Broker's partner plus the 3 hacks are killed. The Broker admits to wrong dealings in the satellite deal and goes to prison to 20 years and the software disappears.

Six years later as the CIA Chief Teddy Maynard wants to use the final minutes of the outgoing president to get a pardon for Backman.

When Backman is freed, they will leak the news to all agencies of his location and sit back and see who kills him first.

Although intriguing and having a lot of potential, Grisham wastes a lot of footage in Backmans attempts to learn Italian language and culture after his relocation to Italy by the CIA

This which includes entire chapters dedicated to his learning Italian and descriptions of Bologna where he is hiding.

If anyone is interested in visiting Bologna, they can use this book as a guide to the city.

Not to mention that every mentionable international intelligence agency is pulled in to make up the numbers for the finale.

This meandering middle half damages the book that even the zip zap zoom finale cannot help.

I am giving this 3 stars and recommend for reading only b'cos it is better than his last book.