The broker by John Grisham

With 14 years left on a 20 year sentence, notorious Washington powerbroker Joel Blackman receives a surprise pardon from a lame duck President. Smuggled out of the country, he is given a new identity and tucked away in a small town in Italy.

I really enjoyed this book. The majority of the action takes place in Bologna, Italy and involves walking around the city.

This is a pretty good story, but (a) the writing is not great and (b) it was apparently an excuse for Grisham to spend a lot of time in Italy eating and drinking. If you're into all things Italian, you might like it

A nice enough read, a wild-goose chase and some immersion into the Italian language and culture (the bit I liked the most)
It's been a while since I've read a book of this sort and having spent most of last year reading books by non-white authors, I can see the stark difference in narratives. It's interesting but I much prefer the value of small, everyday stories and characters.

That said, Italian is going up a little on my list of languages to learn.