"A novel of international espionage"

Joel Backman once ruled behind the scenes amid the power corridors of Washington DC -- he was the best broker, one who could sell almost anything, wheel and out deal almost anyone and get the highest price for it. Until the day he tried to peddle a deadly software and for his insatiable greed, gained some of the most powerful nations in the world for enemies. Choosing to live even if in captivity, Joel pleads guilty and gets sent to live in the obscure safety of a federal prison where he's currently spent six years in solitary confinement.

Through a clever CIA maneuver, Joel finds himself suddenly pardoned in one of the last acts of a bitterly defeated outgoing president. Whisked almost overnight out of the country, he's soon established first in Treviso and later in Bologna, Italy with the CIA footing the bill for his new life. Little does Joel realize that the CIA intends to leak his whereabouts to the Chinese, the Israelis, the Saudis and the Russians and then silently observe as to who gets to him first. And when the day inevitably comes, will the broker be successful in using those very wiles, that very devious thinking that got him into this unholy mess, to get him out of it?

There is no doubt that any book written by best-selling author John Grisham receives more than it's share of hype and publicity and more than often, this hype is justified by Grisham's competent writing and engrossing plotlines. But lately the author seems to have abandoned his true and tried legal thrillers to venture into new territory and the results aren't always stellar.

"The Broker" is a book that promises much but delivers little. It gets off to a great start promising a breathless action thriller but sags terribly in the middle where it transmutates into a bizarre cross between a language dictionary, a travel guide to the fair city of Bologna and a cookbook on Italian dishes, and then peters out to a disappointing finish. As Grisham himself puts it towards the end of this book, he knows 'very little about spies' and with this book proves he's no expert in writing spy thrillers either.

Reviewed by Rashmi Srinivas
Posted March 19, 2005

Summary

In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems Backman, in his power broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world's most sophisticated satellite surveillance system.

Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and a new home in Italy. Eventually, after he has settled into his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis. Then the CIA will do what it does best: sit back and watch. The question is not whether Backman will survive—there is no chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is, who will kill him?