John Grisham is coming out with a sequel to the novel that made him a literary superstar.
Doubleday will publish The Exchange: After the Firm this fall, the press announced in a news release. It is the sequel to The Firm, the thriller that became a publishing phenomenon shortly after its release in 1991.
The Firm followed Mitch McDeere, a lawyer who takes a job at a Memphis, Tennessee, law firm, lured by a lucrative offer. He soon learns that the attorneys he works with have some unsavory connections, and the FBI is on the case. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the novel “terrifically exciting and likable.”
The novel spent almost a year on the New York Times bestseller list and was adapted into a hit 1993 film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Gene Hackman.
In the sequel, Doubleday says, Mitch and his wife “are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications—and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family.”
Suzanne Herz, publisher of Vintage/Anchor Books, said in a statement that The Firm “defined the legal thriller genre and has stood the test of time. Readers will be thrilled to see what happens next to Mitch in The Exchange.”
The Exchange is scheduled for publication on Oct. 17.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
