Mitch McDeere and his lawyer partner, Giovanna go to Libya to view a project of one of their clients. Giovanna is kidnapped. As demands are made, Mitch spends his time trying to meet their demands for money. The kidnappers keep threatening that if their demands are not met they kill Giovanna as they did with her security team and driver. The law partners are having difficulty raising the huge sum of money demanded by the kidnappers. To complicate matters, Abby, Mitch's wife was contacted by the kidnappers and must act as go-between. Mitch worries about Abby's safety and what will happen if the money is not raised. ( )

The Exchange, John Grisham, Edoardo Ballerini, narrator
In this supposed sequel to “The Firm”, Mitch and Abby McDeere return. More than a decade later, they are now living in NYC. He is working for the largest law firm in the world, and she is an executive in the publishing industry. Their twins are thriving.
When the novel begins, a lawyer in Mitch’s firm asks him to help on a case in Memphis, the city he had fled after exposing the crimes of the firm he had worked for there. He is asked to help to stay the execution of a convicted murderer. Before he can begin, however, the man supposedly commits suicide. This theme is dropped, as I assume it is only brought up to review the origin of Mitch’s law career and the first novel in which he is introduced.
When this case is no longer necessary, he is called to Rome to help a close friend and lawyer, Luca. Luca is dying from an incurable cancer and does not have much time left to live. He wants Mitch to help settle the lawsuit between a Turkish construction company that he represents and Libya. Libya is refusing to pay the bill for the bridge the company built in the desert. Luca asks him to go to Libya to and to hire his daughter, Giovanna, to help. She works for the same company as Mitch, in another location, but he senses that she is unhappy and bored with the law.
When Mitch and Giovanna go to Libya, he becomes very ill almost immediately and cannot visit the bridge location. Luca’s daughter volunteers to go instead. Violence follows the group at a checkpoint. Who kidnapped her? Was it the enemies of Mitch, enemies of the Turkish Company, enemies of Mitch’s firm, terrorists, or possibly Qaddafi?
The story gets mired down in meetings and the mundane. Will she be rescued? Will she be ransomed? Why was she kidnapped? Is it a crime of convenience? Do you negotiate with terrorist? Is it moral not to do so if you can save a life or is negotiating with terrorists, paying them to save the victims which then empowers them to create more havoc, amoral? The story feels thin, and I am not sure this book answers any of the questions it raises. The book feels like it is drowning in the minutiae of unnecessary details. ( )

Read "The Firm" so long ago that I can't remember much but this is a "follow-up" but still readable on its own. Mitch McDeere is a highly paid lawyer in New York City working for one of the largest international law firms. (The Firm had him in Memphis working in a corrupt law firm). His boss gives him the case of an international dispute between a Turkish construction company and the government of Libya; the Turkish company built a "bridge to nowhere" in Libya, now the country led by Gaddafi. Mitch leaves his wife, Abby in New York with their young twin sons and heads to Rome to meet with an old mentor who is dying, Mitch gets involved with an international legal and dangerous struggle.

Much of the story is set in Rome or in Libya which makes it especially interesting. Mitch's mentor's beautiful daughter, who is also a lawyer in London is kidnapped and a most of the story involves finding the ransom money which eventually Abby delivers.

A good, fun, quick read - typical Grishom! ( )

After their years in Memphis and years spent in the Caribbean hiding from the Mafia, Mitch and Abby McDeere are married with twin 8-year-old twin sons in Manhattan. Mitch is a renowned international lawyer and Abby is a cookbook publisher. Mitch is asked by Luca Sandroni, the managing partner at Sandroni Studio Legale, an Italian branch of Sculley & Pershing, a leading worldwide law firm based in New York City, to take over as the lead lawyer in an international case of non-payment of services (building a bridge to nowhere in the Sahara Desert) by Libya. When Mitch and Giovanna (Luca's daughter and an associate at Scully & Pershing in London) go to Libya to visit the bridge, Giovanna is kidnapped. The rest of the story is about collecting the ransom demanded for Giovanna by an unnamed group who have executed many people and placed the videos online, as well as trying to get Libya to pay their debt. Mitch and Abby are forced to take their sons to safety when Abby is contacted by the kidnappers to be the go-between. ( )

A mega lawfirm associate is abducted and held for big ransom. Mitch McDeere, who was the protagonist in THE FIRM, is in charge of getting her from her captors. This is a great thriller, with a time frame and around the world travels as he tries to meet their demands. Loved the look into big law practices. EXCELLENT. ( )