His age, however, is beginning to show. He has started to stray from his milieu of courthouse dramas. Although it's always said that one shouldn't mess with a good thing, Grisham has proven his skeptics wrong in the past with his releases of "A Painted House" in 2000 and "Skipping Christmas" in 2002. Grisham may not be merely scratching at the surface of other genres, however. He may be making more permanent marks. 2004's "The Last Juror" lacked the fast-paced punch of his earlier legal thrillers, despite having the familiar courthouse setting from many of Grisham's earlier novels.
In Grisham's latest work, "The Broker," he breaks new ground without totally abandoning his foolproof storytelling and time-tested formula. The novel has been largely marketed as a thriller, but the truth of the matter is that compared to many of his earlier works, it seems rather lazy and laid-back.
Although the novel's protagonist Joel Backman is a lawyer, he's not the typical Grisham hero we've come to know and love. Joel Backman is the classic antihero. He was far from righteous in his heyday and regularly corrupted the system rather than corrected it. Six years ago, Backman landed himself in a high-security federal prison trying to broker the deal of a lifetime: he tried to sell the world's most sophisticated satellite to the highest bidding nation. Before he could go through with the deal, the CIA was tipped off and Backman found himself "broke, disbarred, disgraced." He landed in prison serving a 20 year sentence, branded by America as a traitor.
The novel begins six years into Backman's sentence on the eve of lame duck president Arthur Morgan's last night in office. He is convinced by crooked CIA director Teddy Maynard to grant Backman a pardon. After Backman's release into federal custody, the CIA plans to drop Backman into a foreign country under the guise of entering him into the Witness Protection Program and then wait for him to be found and killed by the possible buyers of the satellite he tried to sell six years ago. The suspected buyers, according to government intelligence, are the Chinese, the Russians, the Saudis and the Israelis. The CIA is willing to sacrifice Backman in hopes that they may be able to learn more about the dealings by monitoring who tracks and kills Backman first. Each country has the capability as well as the motive to dispose of Backman. The CIA will merely sit back and wait to see who takes the bait.
Grisham's first attempt at a largely political thriller seems dangerous after a recent election that's still fresh in the minds of many. His supposedly fictional description of President Morgan will get a few smiles out of Democratic voters: "[President Morgan] read hardly anything-books, newspapers, magazines. Certainly not legislation, policies, treaties or daily briefings. He'd often had trouble reading his own speeches.'' Grisham's author note promises "it's all fiction, folks," but I, for one, am not completely convinced of that.
The novel's beginning chapters are promising and have the classic thriller format, but the novel takes a very different turn about halfway through. After the government strands Backman in Bologna, Italy, he receives a new alias (Marco Lazzeri) and even a tutor. Eventually he becomes aware of the cat and mouse game to which he has involuntarily become subject, but the thriller feel of the novel is shelved during Backman's exploration of Italy. We're right there with him as he learns the language, eats the food, meets the girl, and begins to fall in love with them all.
The two sections of the novel contrast so sharply that it's almost as if they were written separately and hastily sewn together. If it weren't for Grisham's impeccable storytelling, the novel might not have worked. Grisham's laid-back-thriller still, however, is not void of his famous plot twists and surprises. All in all the novel was a worthwhile read. One must remember that even on a bad day, Grisham is still better than most.