Nicholas McAndrew

Grisham is my go-to, popular fiction, brain candy author, and every book of his I read (including the first I read, which was the firm) I have loved. Even if I forget the plot months or years after reading it, I’ll remember it was a thrilling, good time. But this book was awful and the first book of his that I did not like. And I hate saying that because it’s rare that I dislike a book in general, but honestly it was such a waste. Spoilers ahead: It starts off pretty good, with a cameo of a former colleague at Bendini followed by an intriguing case in North Africa, and then a sudden abduction of a relented younger lawyer and murders of several Libyan body guards, and the plot seems like it’s off to the races!! But no. It stumbles and falls right away. The remainder of the book (the majority of it) is summed up as: they have no idea who took her, probably a Libyan terrorist group (it is), don’t hear anything for an annoyingly long time. Still don’t hear anything. Still don’t hear anything. They finally reach out and demand $100 million. Everyone is trying to get all the money together. No attempts at rescue except botched attempts by the Libyan government, which seems like more of a regular battle with insurgents rather than an actual rescue. They get almost all of the money together. The bad guys settle for what they could raise, release the hostage, and they get away with it. Completely uninspiring and such a pointless story. What I love about Grisham books are the main characters being smart and outwitting the bad guys and cleverly navigating some tense and dangerous situation. But there is none of that here. It’s just, “hey we’re horrible people, we demand money” “okay here’s some of the money” “ugh good enough, k bye”. Why John, why?…