Remember Mitch McDeere from John Grisham’s hit 1991 breakthrough novel The Firm? McDeere stole millions of dollars from the mob, escaping to the Cayman Islands as the FBI swooped down on the crooked Memphis tax law firm he had joined as a graduate. Fifteen years have passed, and with McDeere’s enemies either dead or behind bars, Grisham has brought him back into the frame within the pages of his new book, The Exchange.

McDeere, now a partner in a – less crooked – international New York based law firm, lives a monied life in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, with Italian chefs visiting his plush apartment to cook meals for he and his family. When a work colleague is taken hostage in Libya by terrorists, though, their ransom requests are strangely being sent to McDeere’s wife Abby. McDeere’s past might just be coming back to not just to haunt, but to obliterate him.

The Exchange is a fast-paced follow-up to The Firm, and if its protagonist may not be the most endearing of characters, his sharp thinking and tactical negotiation is key to what unfolds: the twists and turns that take place in London, New York and Marrakech are totally gripping, and pave the way for an explosive finale. John Grisham is still very much the master of fast-paced legal thrillers, and The Exchange is no exception.