I picked up the book because it seemed like a quick easy read for a forthcoming trip to the Netherlands. A lot of the book is fine, albeit generally forgettable. The last two chapters, however, really drop off. Coates worked for David Cameron and the political inclinations really shine through in the final two chapters. The chapter on immigration unexpectedly veers into anecdotal criticism of Arab immigrants that's really not backed up with any evidence. The last chapter seesaws with arguments (The Netherlands is safe, then it isn't) that left a bad taste by the end.
This book is the equivalent of a legal continuance hearing where literally nothing happens. The entire plot is revealed in the blurb, lawyer kidnapped, ransom needs to be paid. And the rest of the book is just chapter after chapter of failed meetings and thousands of miles of Mitch flying on private jets.
This is billed as a sequel to The Firm but that is as meaningless as the entire book. There's four chapters at the start that turn out to be entirely unrelated to anything in the rest of the book and some mild connections in the last 50 pages but a sequel? Hardly. Grisham seems to have written this book and then some editor realized nothing happens so he had Grisham write a few more unrelated chapters and change the characters so it'd sell a few more copies from people who like The Firm.
I only kept reading assuming something, anything would happen in this book. It doesn't.
Also, it's kind of sloppy. At one point there's a meeting with the junior senator from New York, another pointless meeting. The junior senator is in his third term and the senior senator is “showing no signs of fatigue or vulnerability.” The thing is, this book is set in 2005, meaning our junior senator was elected no later than 1992. The senior senator is explicitly stated as having been elected in...1988.
