The 50ish Backman's final grand deal is his undoing. Three youthful Pakistani hackers first discover a secret breakthrough satellite spy system put in place by an unidentified nation and then invent a software program capable of controlling it. Backman represents the trio in peddling the software, alienating the various world powers who wanted to buy it, the still-anonymous nation that launched the unparalleled satellite spyware and the US government, which consi-ders his actions treasonable.
Backman's intention to fight his own government in court dissolves when the Pakistanis and one of Backman's own high-profile employees die under suspicious circumstances. He pleads guilty to one charge of treason and disappears into what he believes will be the seedy sanctuary of federal prison.
But certain US spymasters still want to know who, exactly, is running that satellite surveillance system -- Backman insists he has no idea -- and so a scheme is hatched to pardon Backman, ostensibly place him in a witness protection program outside US borders, tip off various foreign intelligence agencies to where he is, and then watch to see who tries hardest to kill him. That, FBI plotters believe, will reveal who's behind the better-than-ours technology.
Packed off to Bologna, Italy, Backman soon figures out what must be going on and, devoid of all the trappings of wealth and power he once enjoyed, must somehow foil everybody who wants him dead. Will he manage to pull this off? Do you even have to wonder?
In this switch to an espionage rather than legal-themed thriller, Grisham seems to be channeling John le Carre, the acknowledged master in that field. In the tradition of le Carre, Grisham fills The Broker with lots of descriptive passages about quirky neighborhoods and crumbling architecture.
But we've read and been thrilled by John le Carre. John le Carre is a fabulous crafter of nuanced espionage fiction. Grisham, you're no John le Carre.
Grisham is a reasonably gifted storyteller with a nice sense of plot pace. Because the vast majority of readers want easy entertainment rather than intellectual challenge, over the past 15 years he has become America's most popular novelist, bar none.
It's understandable that he'd like to break out of his overall thematic rut, and he's talented enough to keep The Broker intermittently interesting. But ultimately, The Broker is the printed equivalent of a breath mint. It might cause momentary tingling, but nothing more.
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