An outgoing president pardons Joel Backman in his last hours in office, under heavy pressure from the CIA. Backman had tried to sell control of the most powerful satellite surveillance system in the world. He gets a new name and a quiet life in Italy, and then the CIA leaks his location to everyone who wants him dead to see which one moves first.
Grisham doing spy fiction rather than courtroom work. The Italian stretch is slower than the premise suggests and a surprising amount of the book is Backman learning the language.
I liked that more than I expected to. The tradecraft is in the ordinary business of disappearing.
Read April 2022.
