The Broker by John Grisham
Joel Backman – the ex high flying, skirt chasing broker of the title is given a hard time of it by Grisham. Not only does he have to endure 6 years in solitary confinement, get chased by competing teams of hit men but he doesn’t even have the consolation of getting laid.
A half assed love interest with a mature but good looking language teacher only just gets past the warm handshake stage.
The MacGuffin is built around an unconvincing satellite software snatch which Grisham has the grace to concede as far fetched – in his author’s note he says “if something in this novel approaches accuracy, it’s probably a mistake”.
The main – and I would venture, the only – reason for reading it is for anyone wanting to learn a few key Italian phrases, ideally to be used in the city of Bologna where most of the action takes place.Grisham is clearly smitten with the city and there’s a fair bit about its history and an enthusiastic endorsement of the excellence of the food to be found there.
If you skip the boring bits on political double dealing and cover ups (yawn) the novel passes the time painlessly.