I kept reading this expecting it to get good. I have read other books by this author, and thought I remembered them as well written and interesting.

The was neither.

In an author’s note after 422 pages of not very interesting story, Mr. Grisham explains why: he knew nothing about what he wrote! His friend took him to some restaurants and the rest of it he just made up.

I’m through with Mr. Grisham.

n  n
Another great novel by john grisham. He displays a chracter which is wealthy and rich and is basically a lobbyist.He is having all kind of luxuries and lavishness one can think of. He charge his customers huge sums of money. Owns a law firm. He is approached by a group of three scientists. whos have developed a software to hack Neptune (A group of nine satellites sent into space by chinese) by which they can not only trace the satellite by control it in a manner so that it can provide with the minutest details of the colour of the drink a person is sipping in his office building. The technology is quiet advanced. The three scientists plans to deliver it to the highest bidder, and there comes the broker. Russia is not interested in buying it. saudi govt shows its interest while israelis follows the captors of the technology .Mossad is hired. the broker goes to jail after the confessions of his some other deeds. sentenced for 20 years, completes 6, pardoned by the president of america, lives in italy americans wants to know who the technology belongs to and which are the concerned parties intersted in buying it. they plan to tell the interested parties about the where abouts of the broker on same day and resultantly everybody starts movin , meanwhile marco (the broker), has learned italian fallin in love for a woman, and is ready to go bac states and confess wat he has done .. and deliver the goods to fbi; to cut a deal with them. in the end he is again a free man and plans to open a new firm and went back to europe in pursunace of his girl.

This is probably my favourite of Grisham's books, despite a smattering of sentimental cliches that make me desire to inspect the brains of some fairly central characters with a fire poker. The worst one:

(She:) "Have I offended you?"
(He:) "You could smile more."
She nodded slightly and her eyes were instantly moist. She looked away, through the window, and said, "I have so little to smile about."

This type of thing, along with the rhythm (wretched) of most of his prose convinces me that Grisham ought to be a screenwriter, not a novelist. The singular strength that has propelled him to stardom is that of his plots, which usually aren't bad. It is a rare writer that can combine intriguing plots with good prose and fully developed characters. Grisham is one for three, and that one is occasionally debatable. Yet, with his characters flat and his prose poor, I'm still reading him due to my inability to pass up fifty cent books when coins are comingling with the pens in my pocket. I'm just not reading him fast enough to be done with him before I'm annoyed at him.

To top it off, he spent six months in Italy "researching" gelato, architecture, cuisine and language for this book. I empathize. Let us say with the Hindu: life is suffering, get a helmet. P. T. Barnum's famous quip that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public gives me hope to one day become independently wealthy. Perhaps my first book ought to take place in the Mediterranean instead of Mexico...