A gripping international political thriller. Review on Broker, The - John Grisham

A batsman in a slump, a hitter in a funk, people have been down. But there's always hope of coming out strong. The question always is how and when? Readers all over the world have enjoyed John Grisham's legal thrillers and movie adaptations over the last decade. His novels have skimmed across various sections in legality from offshore money laundering to medical malpractice suits to tort reforms. However crafting a political thriller is a different animal altogether.

The novel starts off with end of a Presidential election, coincidentally the novel was released at the same time. The outgoing President was elected by good fortune and some help from Washington lobbyists including Joel Backman who's currently in prison for charges of treason. As is tradition, long lost friends come seeking for last favors from the Outgoing leader of the free world. Among them is the recalcitrant director of the CIA, readers might remember him from The Brethren, who wants the President to pardon the broker, release him from his prison sentence and gives him sufficient reason. His rationale being releasing the Broker into the world would help the CIA gather information about a satellite system which only Joel has knowledge about. Spies from Countries having knowledge about the existence of the system would try to kill him and CIA would then track them. The novel moves on from the US to Italy and to the city of Bologna where Joel tries to adapt to a life in hiding in a new environment in a new country.

He learns the new culture and language, its a far change from the fast life he was leading as the head of a lobbying firm, with power, connections to the top leaders of the world, money and women. Things spin out of control, when the hunters come to the town and the hunted has a few tricks up his sleeve all leading to an interesting climax.

Grisham's novels have been limited to the human drama surrounding legal thrillers, barring the odd venture like Skipping Christmas or the Bleachers. Writing a political thriller with subplots on espionage and latest techno-gadgetry is quite a challenge and Grisham has been quite candid in accepting that he's not the expert in those subjects.

However the novel itself is an interesting read. It presents believable characters as opposed to caricatures presented by some of the best espionage writers. The Broker itself has some similarities to his earlier work, the grey antihero finding himself in an unfamiliar situation. The Italian language tutorial scenes are well written into the plot. The human drama based on the subplots of a love affair and a tense father-son relationship and the CIA director trying to move events as though he was playing a chess game. After such disappointments like the Summons, Grisham here is in top form in weaving the drama, he does not fill us with technospeak unless its necessary. For those who have not read this novel, do not go in expecting another Grisham legal thriller with gripping court room scenes. But you will be pleasantly surprised as I was at this change of genre.