Book review: The Broker
John Grisham
January 2005

       
The Broker

Great book, fast read! I highly recommend this Grisham novel!

Joel Backman, known as "the broker," is sent to federal prison for treason, six years later and fourteen years before his earliest scheduled parole, he receives an unscheduled pardon from the out-going president. Thus begins a three month ride where ‘the broker’ must become a passing citizen of a country he has visited only once in his lifetime and of which he has no understanding of the language.

Beckman knows that he is a marked man; he had become ‘money hungry’ during his previous life, trying to sell a computer program devised by three young middle eastern males, that would manipulate a satellite so intelligent every country in the world was bidding on it. Due to his greed, Beckman must now learn how to speak the Italian language, familiarize himself with Italian customs and devise a plan that would make his software plan look like child’s play and save his life!

Beckman goes from power player, to broken man to power player again, manipulating the system looking not only top end his life, but also to locate the compute software that they feel Beckman may have already sold.

The action increases with each page, making it a book that demands to be read.

The Talbot Odyssey
1991 by Nelson DeMille

         
Talbot Odyssey

For forty years Western intelligence agents have known a terrible secret: the Russians have a mole--code-named Talbot--inside the CIA. At first Talbot is suspected of killing European agents. Then a street-smart ex-cop uncovers a storm of espionage and murder on the streets of New York, while in a Long Island suburb a civic demonstration against the Russian mission masks a desperate duel of nerves and wits. Engineered by Talbot, a shadow world of suspicion and deceit is spilling onto the streets--leading to a new Soviet weapon and a first-strike war plan threatening the foundations of American government. For the U.S., time is running out. For Talbot, the time is now.

The Talbot Odyssey answers the questions: What if the Office of Strategic Services [OSS] still existed today; what if their children carried on the secret agent works of WWII; and what would happen if these people learned that someone amongst them was a traitor and had sold not only the OSS but the entire population of the United States out.

The books is full of traitors, espionage and counter espionage; double and triple agents and a world where no one is safe; especially those Americans that want to believe they are safe living on American soil.

This novel explores one of the worse possible acts of terrorism possible; disaster via EMP [electro-magnetic pulse]. A simple nuclear warhead, exploded three hundred miles from the earth, over a specific area of the United States could be totally disastrous America and Americans. Everything we have come to rely on; electricity, news broadcasts, cars, trains, airplanes, etc. would be totally worthless and anyone could step in and take over.

This book is set between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, two extremely prestigious American Holidays. During that time murder attempted murder breaking and entering all in the name of national security; from those in high levels of American Government to everyday people become involved in the means to save America from a Russian plot to take over; a plot that guarantees the Russians offense because of their recruitment of three former OSS agents.

This is definitely a page turner; you never know who can be trusted and who has turned. Nelson DeMille is an excellent author and this by far keeps with his tradition of acting out patriotism during the verge of disaster.

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