Tag / The Exchange

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Prolific Authors – Nine Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with the four authors I’ve read nine times, three more than two years ago.

Michael Jan Friedman

Known primarily for licensed works, Friedman first entered my world in 1990, thanks to a trio of Star Trek: The Next Generation novels.  There were another two in 1992 and then he reappeared in 1996 with another trio of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman tie-ins.  That was it until he reappeared on my radar in 2021, with yet another Next Gen entry.

The Judge’s List – John Grisham

John Grisham

The former attorney, who I first read in 1993 with his smash hit The Firm, returned to my attention with The Exchange, a sequel 31-years in the making.

Mary Kubica

The local author, who is a New York Times best seller, moves up two slots and has placed nine entries on my bookshelf over the past ten years, starting with The Good Girl, which I read in 2015.

Scott Turow

The Chicago-based lawyer, who I first read in 1992 with Presumed Innocent and Burden of Proof, returned to my attention in 2021 after an eleven-year absence and has added three books in these past two years.

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Book 4 (of 52) – The Exchange

The Exchange – John Grisham

Fifteen years after his unfortunate business in Memphis, Mitch McDeere is living in New York, a partner at one of the world’s biggest law firms.  When a beloved colleague in Rome falls ill, Mitch agrees to take over his prized case: suing the Libyan government for money owed to a Turkish firm who built a bridge in the middle of the desert.  Things quickly go south, though, when an associate, the daughter of Mitch’s Italian colleague, is kidnapped while attempting to visit the bridge.  When Mitch’s wife is contacted about the ransom demands, they are reminded of the trouble they faced fifteen years prior, quickly putting their kids into hiding.  Can Mitch work with his firm and the involved governments to raise the money needed to save his associate?  Or will she suffer the same fate as her male bodyguards: killed and beheaded?

Back in 1993, I read The Firm, my first John Grisham novel.  30 years later, we finally get a sequel in The Exchange, though there isn’t much of a throughline aside from the McDeeres and the trauma the suffered in the earlier work. I enjoyed most of it, though the ending felt a little anti-climatic and seemed to wrap everything up too quickly.  I’ve been in and out on Grisham since the early days in the 90s, and it feels like I’m heading towards out again, at least for the foreseeable future.