John Grisham’s latest is the long-awaited sequel to the 1991 bestseller ‘The Firm’

An early holiday gift to fiction readers each year is a John Grisham novel. This year, the bestselling author gives us “The Exchange: After the Firm,” a sequel to his first bestseller “The Firm,” which starred Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere in its movie version.

It’s now 15 years since Mitch exposed the fraud and criminal activities at his first job as a fledging lawyer at Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a mob-front law firm in Memphis. He and his wife Abby are now living and working in Manhattan, raising young twin sons with the past deliberately in the rear-view mirror.

Ah, but as readers know, fictional life in a Grisham legal thriller is rarely calm for long. Mitch, now a partner with the world’s largest law firm (over 2,100 lawyers in 31 locations), soon finds himself smack dab in the middle of an international terrorist plot and high-stakes hostage negotiation.

Before we get into the merits of this new novel, let’s review the McDeere legacy. Published in 1991, “The Firm” followed the young lawyer caught up in the fraud, criminal activity and mob connections. The movie premiered 30 years ago and still stands as Grisham’s highest-grossing adaptation. There’s already speculation that “The Exchange” will become the author’s 20^th feature film.

While this novel is labeled as a sequel, it is a stand-alone novel with little relation to “The Firm.” The protagonist has moved on with no plans to ever return to Memphis permanently. Yes, he makes a stop there, remembers what went on years earlier and then moves on.

This time around, Mitch is asked by his longtime friend in Rome, Luca, who is terminally ill, to take over a developer’s $400 million lawsuit involving the Libyan government. It’s 2005 and Muammar al-Qaddafi has a reputation of making unreasonable demands and then refusing to pay for them.

At his friend’s request, Mitch adds the man’s daughter, Giovanna, to his legal team. She has already made a name for herself at the London office, but she’s eager to be a bigger player. They fly to Tripoli and plan to visit a construction site, which turns out to be a bridge in the middle of the desert. Mitch, however, ends up in the hospital with food poisoning, so Giovanna makes the trip alone with armed bodyguards.

The journey soon becomes deadly, and Giovanna is taken hostage by a terrorist group waging battle against Qaddafi. If the law firm doesn’t pay a $100 million ransom, Giovanna will be executed and her murder splashed across social media. This time, Mitch’s wife, Abby, a cookbook editor, gets drawn in the fray with her son’s life a mere piece on a global chessboard. The legal wranglings, moral dilemmas and tense situations are detailed in true Grisham style. How far does one go to protect others? When is doing “wrong” the “right” thing to do?

It’s well known that Grisham is committed to fighting injustice, often using his written words to explore an issue. This is where Grisham shines. His own experiences as a lawyer in the South give a depth of truth, justice and personal struggle to his writing.

This is especially true in “The Exchange,” where the author’s true desire for justice shows in the way Mitch approaches law. The character’s strong beliefs in ethical representation for all keep him fighting for what’s right and moving him forward. Yes, he stumbles and sometimes falls, but he gets up again to confront his mistakes and his personal beliefs.

Negotiations replace courtroom battles in this novel. Admittedly, the plot is far-fetched and at times very thin, but it’s still good reading. However, there are enough legal scenarios and moving parts to keep Grisham fans entertained.

Is this the last readers will hear of Mitch McDeere? The novel is touted as the second in “The Firm” series. Will the third be next fall’s Grisham gift?

A review of ‘The Exchange: After the Firm’

• By John Grisham

• Doubleday

• Hardback; 352 pages

Susan O’Bryan is a retired Clarion-Ledger newspaper editor and web content coordinator. She is an avid reader who enjoys discovering new writers, plots, and angles for fiction and non-fiction publications.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Review: John Grisham’s latest novel "The Exchange: After the Firm" a gift as sequel to best seller