The Broker

President Morgan’s term will be over in a few hours and he’s making last-minute pardons. Joel Backman, a Washington power broker, has been in prison for six years on a plea bargain. The CIA Director wants Backman pardoned and hidden in Europe so they can see which country’s terrorists will kill him. Joel got into trouble because of his insatiable greed…his Pakistani clients had hacked into an extremely sophisticated satellite system. Then they wrote programs to manipulate it and wanted Joel to sell the secrets to the highest bidder. Bad guys around the world believe Backman knows where the software is, bilked the buyer and buried the money.

So the CIA gets Joel pardoned and sets him up as Marco Lazzeri in Italy. He takes a crash course in Italian and is ‘protected’ by a local Italian named Luigi (on the CIA payroll?) until he can function as an Italian on his own. One day the bottom falls out of the plan and Marco is on the run. The bad guys are after Marco; which terrorist group will get him?

This is one of Grisham’s better books lately. He includes descriptions of Italian cities, towns and countryside along with language lessons. It’s a fast paced story that kept my interest.

Bob's newest book about the Vietnam War

- Bonus Review -

"Inflammatory!" -Ellen Tanner Marsh, New York Times Bestselling Author

Excerpt: It was a delightful spring day in South Florida when I finally arrived at the home of a retired assassin to ghostwrite this book. I had questioned Bob Miller, the subject of this book, about why he wanted a ghostwriter. He already had six books under his belt, six more than I had in the market place. This book is actually four books in one. You can blame me for the inclusion of the last three. It was a condition I insisted upon if I were to endure spending weeks in a world I knew little or nothing about and didn’t want to know anything about. What you’re about to read is a transcript of those days I spent in the darkest corners of a man’s life.

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