32 years after ‘The Firm’, John Grisham plunges Mitch McDeere into Libyan hostage drama
New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) Three decades after he launched his writing career with the global bestseller, ‘The Firm’, John Grisham’s publishers have announced that his new novel, The Exchange, will be released in India on October 27.
Billed as the “epic follow-up” to ‘The Firm’, ‘The Exchange’, says a media release issued by the publishers Hodder & Stoughton and Hachette India, “will take you on a rollercoaster journey across the globe, from New York to London, and Rome to Marrakech”.
The two-line blurb that follows the book’s title says: “Ten days to save a life. One second to end it.” Here’s how the story unfolds in the words of the publicity release:
The new legal suspense thriller marks the return of Mitch McDeere, who has cheated death and come out on the other side. Fifteen years ago, he stole $10 million from the mob and disappeared. Now, with his enemies jailed or dead, he has fought his way to the top of the biggest law firm in the world.
When a new case takes Mitch to Libya, danger awaits him: he finds himself embroiled in the biggest hostage negotiation in recent history with terrorists who have murdered and will murder again.
Their demand is staggering: a ransom of $100 million must be paid within 10 days. But this isn’t a random kidnapping — it’s personal. And no one, not even Mitch’s wife in New York, is safe.
With the clock ticking, can Mitch stay one step ahead of his enemies? This time, there’s nowhere to hide.
Speaking about the sequel, Grisham said: “When last seen in ‘The Firm’, Mitch McDeere and his wife Abby were fleeing Memphis with the bad guys in hot pursuit. Now they’re back, 15 years later, and living in New York where Mitch is an international lawyer and a partner in a mega-firm. His work takes him across the globe, and not always to safe places.
“During a trip to Libya, his trusted associate is kidnapped and an execution is threatened unless an enormous ransom is paid. Only Mitch can facilitate the exchange.”
Beginning with ‘The Firm’ in 1991, Grisham has published at least one No. 1 bestseller every year. His books have been translated into 45 languages and have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. Ten have been adapted to film, including ‘The Firm’, ‘The Pelican Brief’, and ‘A Time To Kill’.
His Theodore Boone series for young readers is now in development at Netflix. An avid sports fan, he has written two novels about football, one about baseball, and in 2021 he published ‘Sooley’, a story set in the world of college basketball.
His lone work of non-fiction, ‘The Innocent Man’, was adapted into a six-part Netflix docuseries.
A graduate of Mississippi State University and Ole Miss Law School, he lives on a farm in central Virginia, around the corner from the youth baseball complex he had built in 1996. Grisham still serves as its commissioner.
–IANS
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