Status
Checked out
Genres
Collection
Publication
Dell (2005), Edition: Reprint, 422 pages
Description
John Grisham, delivers another legal thriller of unparalled suspense. With fourteen years left on a twenty-year sentence, notorious Washington power broker, Joel Blackman, receives a surprise pardon from a lame-duck president. He is smuggled out of the country on a military cargo plane, given a new identity, and tucked away in a small town in Italy. But Blackman has serious enemies from his past. As the CIA watches him closely, the question is not whether he will be killed, but rather who will kill him first.
Media reviews
if you're expecting a great legal thriller, pick up an earlier Grisham novel. If you want a great political thriller, there are wonderful ones by Snow, Drury and Patterson. But if you will be satisfied with a workmanlike spy-cum-politics novel, with some first-rate cloak and dagger intrigue, an
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uplifting vignette of father-son redemption and a poignant pastiche of unrequited love, then "The Broker" is the book for you. Show Less
To make a weak plot even weaker, Beckman is utterly unsympathetic.
I had a very good time with The Broker, found Backman believable and charming and interesting, got a few laughs and felt my pulse thumping as the climax approached. But there's a rather hasty aspect to the book: too many short paragraphs, too many unnecessary exclamation points, a rushed and
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contrived ending. Show Less
Zippy but uneventful, the book tastes like something Robert Ludlum left sitting on his stove when he died.
Readers looking for a non-stop thrill ride won't find it in The Broker. For those ready to relax and settle into an almost sensuous pace, The Broker is benissimo.
User reviews
LibraryThing member bigorangemichael
Grisham takes a break from his usual legal thriller to give us a just plain thriller. The broker is Joel Backman, a former high stakes DC lawyer who went to prison for trying to sell control of a spy satellite system to the highest bidder. He took prison when several of those in on the conspiracy
As usual, Grisham writes a page turner. I chewed up large chunks of this one in a relatively short amount of time. That said, this is not his usual legal thriller. Grisham seems to want to try and just write a thriller and, for the most part, it's not that successful. There are long stretches of the novel where next to no action occurs and the plot doesn't move foward. It reads almost like a travel guide to Bologna, Italy for large sections of the middle of the story as Joel learns about the culture and people. And the suspense sequences aren't quite that suspenseful as there's never any impending doom facing Joel as in other cloak and dagger type thrillers.
A good try, John, but not a successful one. You've branched out before with A Time to Kill and A Painted House, both of which are far better novels than this one.
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with him died. Now, four years later, he's released on a last minute presidential pardon so the CIA can figure out who the buyer was when they try to kill him. Joel is sent to Italy where he is immersed in the culture and language and tries to blend into his new life. As usual, Grisham writes a page turner. I chewed up large chunks of this one in a relatively short amount of time. That said, this is not his usual legal thriller. Grisham seems to want to try and just write a thriller and, for the most part, it's not that successful. There are long stretches of the novel where next to no action occurs and the plot doesn't move foward. It reads almost like a travel guide to Bologna, Italy for large sections of the middle of the story as Joel learns about the culture and people. And the suspense sequences aren't quite that suspenseful as there's never any impending doom facing Joel as in other cloak and dagger type thrillers.
A good try, John, but not a successful one. You've branched out before with A Time to Kill and A Painted House, both of which are far better novels than this one.
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LibraryThing member TadAD
A straight-forward thriller from Mr. Grisham that just doesn't deliver much in the way of thrills. It flows along reasonably well, bogging down only occasionally for travelogue. I had it in the audio book version and it ate up its share of miles. I'd probably have given it a 3-star "well, it passed
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an afternoon" except for the very unsatisfying ending: abrupt, more than a bit unbelievable and, once one thinks about it, inconclusive. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cecilturtle
I love espionnage; I love Italy - this was a great match!
LibraryThing member seasidereader
This story was almost unbearably boring, and I kept listening only because I believed it had to improve. Grisham even managed to make Italy seem unappealing -- not an easy feat.
LibraryThing member DCash
Grisham is usually okay for a train ride or a long flight. But this one is cetainly one of the poorest.
LibraryThing member JudyMaize
An intriguing suspense novel. I couln't put it down. I kept picturing Harrison Ford as the main character (for some strange reason).
LibraryThing member wingfieldsinbrussels
One of the worst books I have ever read. Don't waste your time or money on it.
LibraryThing member CaptKirk
I really liked this one. Not a favorite Grisham tale, but very enjoyable.
LibraryThing member RoseCityReader
After a nearly ten-year break from Grisham, I decided to try one. But The Broker was not nearly as exciting as The Firm or Pelican Brief. This one just strolls along, more travelogue of Bologna than thriller. Nothing very exciting happens. Then the hero resolves his problems. Well, he solves all
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but one major problem and then the book, inexplicably, just ends. Highly unsatisfying. Show Less
LibraryThing member tetchechury
I liked this Grisham book more then many of his more recent books. Another solid effort from the master of the legal thriller.
LibraryThing member TracyWhitt
A superb read! Action filled from the beginning. Explore the streets of Italy with Marco.
LibraryThing member Kathy89
The main character is unlikeable. He acts as a broker to any government or person willing to pay the right price. He's hiding out in Italy not knowing who to trust when he manages to escape all the spies watching him and brokers another deal for his freedom.
LibraryThing member KidQuislet
A well paced, exciting drama typical of the John Grisham style. While maybe not his best, it ranks up near the top as an entertaining read.
LibraryThing member seldombites
Pretty good book actually. The usual thriller stuff but definitely readable.
LibraryThing member madamejeanie
Grisham has been a bit off his mark with the last couple of books, but
he's back in stride with this one. It's a thriller and has lawyers in
it, but it's not his typical legal thriller.
Joel Backman was a power broker, a high profile lawyer turned lobbyist
in Washington who has clawed his way to the
much, and leaving broken lives and marriages in his ruthless path. But
when three young Pakistani men come to him with a discovery that will
set the world's governments on their collective ears, he peddles the
secrets to several governments at once, greedy to the end, and manages
to touch off a firestorm that leaves his law firm in shambles, a senator
dead, and indictments ready to be handed down against not only him, but
his son. He pleads guilty to lesser charges and is quietly shipped off
to federal prison to serve a 20 year sentence in solitary confinement.
Six years later, the political wheels in Washington have turned and
other power hungry men are eager for his blood. So, bargains are made
and an outgoing disgraced president grants him a full pardon at the
behest of the CIA and he finds himself spirited out of the prison in the
middle of the night, bundled onto a military plane and headed to Italy
for a new life, with a new name and a bunch of mysterious new "friends"
who will teach him to speak the language and to blend in with the people
of the city of Bolgona. But something isn't quite kosher in this new
setup and he is under constant surveillance. His own government is
setting him up for professional assassins from at least five countries
and the CIA intends to sit back and wait to see which one gets him
first, trying to solve the biggest mystery to hit the US government in
decades.
This book is fast paced and has more twists and turns than a Georgia
county backroad. It's well written and moves right along. It was good
all the way up to the last page, but it felt as if it ended too
abruptly, leaving you to imagine exactly what's going to happen next.
Still, it was pretty good and I'll give it a 4.
he's back in stride with this one. It's a thriller and has lawyers in
it, but it's not his typical legal thriller.
Joel Backman was a power broker, a high profile lawyer turned lobbyist
in Washington who has clawed his way to the
Show More
top, living hard, spendingmuch, and leaving broken lives and marriages in his ruthless path. But
when three young Pakistani men come to him with a discovery that will
set the world's governments on their collective ears, he peddles the
secrets to several governments at once, greedy to the end, and manages
to touch off a firestorm that leaves his law firm in shambles, a senator
dead, and indictments ready to be handed down against not only him, but
his son. He pleads guilty to lesser charges and is quietly shipped off
to federal prison to serve a 20 year sentence in solitary confinement.
Six years later, the political wheels in Washington have turned and
other power hungry men are eager for his blood. So, bargains are made
and an outgoing disgraced president grants him a full pardon at the
behest of the CIA and he finds himself spirited out of the prison in the
middle of the night, bundled onto a military plane and headed to Italy
for a new life, with a new name and a bunch of mysterious new "friends"
who will teach him to speak the language and to blend in with the people
of the city of Bolgona. But something isn't quite kosher in this new
setup and he is under constant surveillance. His own government is
setting him up for professional assassins from at least five countries
and the CIA intends to sit back and wait to see which one gets him
first, trying to solve the biggest mystery to hit the US government in
decades.
This book is fast paced and has more twists and turns than a Georgia
county backroad. It's well written and moves right along. It was good
all the way up to the last page, but it felt as if it ended too
abruptly, leaving you to imagine exactly what's going to happen next.
Still, it was pretty good and I'll give it a 4.
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LibraryThing member Darla
Joel Backman is "the Broker"--a Washington power broker-lobbyist. Then his empire collapses when a deal collapses involving a hacked spy satellite that nobody acknowledges, and Backman ends up in jail, broke.
Six years later, he's pardoned by a lame duck President, and whisked away to Italy by the
So Backman is completely out of his element, under constant surveillance, and kept deliberately short of money and paperwork so he can't run far, even if he tries. But he didn't get to be "the Broker" by being stupid, either.
This was a fairly low-key suspense book, but I enjoyed the transformation from wealthy cold-hearted power broker to someone who's dependent on others for everything, and who's learning to reevaluate his priorities. It was also quite lovely to revisit Italy.
Six years later, he's pardoned by a lame duck President, and whisked away to Italy by the
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CIA. Everyone's after him, including the CIA, though they're more interesting in finding out who kills him than in either killing him themselves or keeping him safe.So Backman is completely out of his element, under constant surveillance, and kept deliberately short of money and paperwork so he can't run far, even if he tries. But he didn't get to be "the Broker" by being stupid, either.
This was a fairly low-key suspense book, but I enjoyed the transformation from wealthy cold-hearted power broker to someone who's dependent on others for everything, and who's learning to reevaluate his priorities. It was also quite lovely to revisit Italy.
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LibraryThing member WaupacaTeensRead
This book was amazing...simply amazing...
LibraryThing member truthteller
I don't know why I keep reading Grisham's books. I always feel like a sucker when I finish them. This one has the usual characteristics but is particulatly bad: The protagonist is unlikable and never really changes (he puts his family in extreme danger at the end without even thinking about it);
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the plot lines are unbelievable (super-sophisticated satellite spy system, no one can figur out who put it into space, hijacked by three hackers); tedious Italian lessons (this is brilliant writing if the author's intent was to have the reader actually experience the crushing boredom of learning a new language); and human behavior that would never actually occur in real life (man elects to go to federal penitentiary for 20 years to get away from bad guys who are out to get him.) Show Less
LibraryThing member schiffell
This was a wonderful, quick read. Highly recommned it!
LibraryThing member gilroy
Definitely within the realm of a John Grisham novel. Lots of legal stuff, intrigue. I enjoyed the book in the fact that it gave me ideas for my own writing. It offered insight into what people consider good writing. The person reading the book sounded interesting. Maybe if I get a book published,
I do say it is a worthy listen.
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he'll read mine. :>I do say it is a worthy listen.
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LibraryThing member Eskypades
I’m relatively new to Grisham’s work, but even I could tell that his book, The Broker, was not up to his standards. The story follows Joel Backman, a high-powered broker who gets himself into a lot of trouble and is sent to a federal prison to be kept in solitary confinement. What that trouble
The story is set in Italy where the U.S. government has decided to hide Backman until they deem an appropriate time to leak his whereabouts to foreign nations in order to see who kills him first. I thought perhaps this was going to turn into a story of how Backman kept having to hide from either the U.S. government or foreign governments. Instead, way too much of the book is spent on Backman learning Italian or eating some lovely Italian delicacy or visiting some wonderful Italian architecture. The pace does pick up when the time actually comes for Backman to run, but even that doesn’t make up for the rest of the book. The professional, government-paid assassins sent to whack him are seemingly a side note, even though the whole premise of the book is that Backman is hiding from them and is supposed to be on the run.
It’s evident, as Grisham points out in his author’s note, that he greatly admires the Italian culture. I’m sure quite a bit of research went into describing the various Italian cultural tidbits. But reading how to greet one another in Italian over and over again is not the stuff a person usually wants to read in a Grisham book. Overall, it was slow and disappointing.
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is exactly we don’t find out until about halfway through the book. When we are first introduced to Backman, he is described in such terms that make you glad he got caught. Surely, he is the bad guy in the book, right? As events unfold so painfully slowly, I thought perhaps that Backman would turn out not to be too bad and perhaps he was framed or something. Nope. He did everything and got everything he deserved. But yet by the end of the book, I got that feeling that I was supposed to like him, despite being the sleazeball that he is/was.The story is set in Italy where the U.S. government has decided to hide Backman until they deem an appropriate time to leak his whereabouts to foreign nations in order to see who kills him first. I thought perhaps this was going to turn into a story of how Backman kept having to hide from either the U.S. government or foreign governments. Instead, way too much of the book is spent on Backman learning Italian or eating some lovely Italian delicacy or visiting some wonderful Italian architecture. The pace does pick up when the time actually comes for Backman to run, but even that doesn’t make up for the rest of the book. The professional, government-paid assassins sent to whack him are seemingly a side note, even though the whole premise of the book is that Backman is hiding from them and is supposed to be on the run.
It’s evident, as Grisham points out in his author’s note, that he greatly admires the Italian culture. I’m sure quite a bit of research went into describing the various Italian cultural tidbits. But reading how to greet one another in Italian over and over again is not the stuff a person usually wants to read in a Grisham book. Overall, it was slow and disappointing.
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LibraryThing member darlingtrk
I have read fewer than a half dozen Grishams. This one is quite engaging. The protagonist Joel, Marco, whoever, is likable in spite of the fact that he is a confirmed criminal and a traitor. Lik...e so many people, when he personally experiences the fear he generates, he has a change of heart. Like
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Playing for Pizza much of the story is set in Italy, giving something of a Ludlumite authenticity to the spycraft. The book is entertaining, though it is nobody's classic. A fun read. Show Less
LibraryThing member harpua
I've never been much of a Grisham fan, just never thought I'd enjoy his books. About a year ago I picked up a pile of Grisham books for cheap. It's taken me a year, but I've now finished my second Grisham novel. I must say this was enjoyable. Only thing wrong with this, is the ending. While it
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wrapped up nicely in once sense, it left a lot of dangling threads. This seems more like book 1 of a trilogy or something instead of a standalone. But nevertheless, I enjoyed this and will read my way through the rest of the Grisham novels sitting on my shelf over the next year or so. Show Less
LibraryThing member LBM007
Not a bad story, but reading all the Italian dialog (followed by English translations) got annoying after awhile.
LibraryThing member csayban
John Grisham has brought us a succession of nail-biting thrillers including A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Partner (3.5 stars) and The Street Lawyer (4.0 stars). The Broker, however, turns out to be a thriller without very many thrills. There are a couple moments of tension, but they are so mild and
Instead of a thriller, the meat of the book is really a character piece where we watch Joel try to blend into the northern Italian college town of Bologna. Taking the name ‘Marco,’ he learns to speak, dress and – more than anything – eat like a native Italian. This turns out to be the strongest part of the book. Grisham does a nice job of painting a picture of the northern Italian lifestyle and giving a guided tour of its history that feel very organic to the story. In fact, if he had written something akin to A Painted House, it might have been a fascinating character study in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, he stuffed it inside of an espionage thriller that simply didn’t come off. The plot holes and anticlimactic ending certainly didn’t do the story any favors, either. But while I can’t say that I really liked the book, I can’t say that I disliked it either. There was something about the character of Joel Backman and his attempt to integrate with Italian life that made the story tolerable. Also, Grisham’s polished writing moves along easily which prevents the story from becoming a monotonous bore. If it is already sitting on one of your shelves and you want to learn some things about northern Italy, it might still be worth sitting down with it. However, it is not one of Grisham’s better books.
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scattered that they don’t provide any real trepidation. This seems strange considering the plot of the book has nearly every intelligence agency in the world intent on killing the main character. As if that were not enough, Joel Backman’s own CIA handlers want him dead. To top it off, Joel has little money and even less training, yet he appears more than capable of strolling right past everyone with surprising little effort even though everyone knows where he is. I never felt like he was in any kind of real jeopardy even when he should have been in all kinds of real jeopardy. Instead, most of the forces against him just fall out of the story without any explanation. At one point, Grisham describes in detail one of the most diabolical assassins in the world, only to leave him out of the rest of the story. I suppose he must have gotten lost.Instead of a thriller, the meat of the book is really a character piece where we watch Joel try to blend into the northern Italian college town of Bologna. Taking the name ‘Marco,’ he learns to speak, dress and – more than anything – eat like a native Italian. This turns out to be the strongest part of the book. Grisham does a nice job of painting a picture of the northern Italian lifestyle and giving a guided tour of its history that feel very organic to the story. In fact, if he had written something akin to A Painted House, it might have been a fascinating character study in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, he stuffed it inside of an espionage thriller that simply didn’t come off. The plot holes and anticlimactic ending certainly didn’t do the story any favors, either. But while I can’t say that I really liked the book, I can’t say that I disliked it either. There was something about the character of Joel Backman and his attempt to integrate with Italian life that made the story tolerable. Also, Grisham’s polished writing moves along easily which prevents the story from becoming a monotonous bore. If it is already sitting on one of your shelves and you want to learn some things about northern Italy, it might still be worth sitting down with it. However, it is not one of Grisham’s better books.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005-02
Physical description
422 p.; 4.19 inches
ISBN
9780440241584