Sometimes a sitting United States President makes a decision and commits an action that goes beyond being questionable and controversial.
At the behest of top-level CIA members, a U.S. president makes one of his final acts in office the last-minute pardon of one Joel Backman, who has spent the last six years in prison.
Joel Backman knows things. The CIA knows he knows them. The CIA has an elaborate plan for Backman that starts off with giving him a new identity and a place to live far away from the United States.
Backman once brokered a deal of such gigantic proportions that it put the entire country at risk. Sure, he did a dirty deed, but he's a likeable guy. Despite his being a criminal, Joel Backman becomes a character who gains respect from the readers. They want him to survive, but can anyone in his unenviable position actually do so?
Born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on February 8, 1955, international bestselling author John Grisham attended law school at the University of Mississippi, earning a law degree in 1981.
Grisham has practiced both criminal and civil law and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives.
His first novel, "A Time to Kill," was published in 1989, but it was not until his next book, "The Firm," came out that he was catapulted into the publishing world and went on to become one of the world's most recognized novelists. Many of his books have been made into successful motion pictures.
Grisham writes from his homes in Charlottesville, Virginia and Oxford, Mississippi. In 2008, he and his wife purchased a home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
"Once I settled into this thriller, I was hooked. My initial problems were of a grammatical nature--especially the author's propensity to use split infinitives. Despite this, John Grisham is a brilliant storyteller, and, I think, over the years his novels have become less dry, with an emerging humour. When reading the opening two chapters of 'The Broker' I didn't like the main protagonist, but my sympathy for him, as a hunted man and an intended pawn in a political game, grew with every page thereafter. A good read for those who like something to keep them awake but not too mentally taxed."
—
Sarah (4 out of 5 stars)