Say the name John Grisham, and a few things probably come to mind. Lawyers. Courtrooms. Small Southern towns. International espionage probably isn’t high on the list.
Then again, Grisham hasn’t seemed all that interested in staying in his lane lately.
His latest novel, The French Illusion, may feature a lawyer as one of its heroes, but a legal thriller this isn’t. There are no tense courtroom showdowns or juries waiting to deliver a verdict. Instead, Grisham sends us to Paris for a story involving kidnappings, the CIA, and an elaborate undercover operation.
It’s not exactly what I expected from a John Grisham novel, but that’s part of the fun.
Paul and Chelsea are just at the beginning of their love story. The newlyweds had a fairytale wedding and are now enjoying their honeymoon in the city of love. Paris is full of romance, tourist sites, incredible food, and luxury hotels. What the happy couple never expected was danger. Soon, they’re kidnapped, separated, and held for ransom. Who is behind the crime? And why were Paul and Chelsea targeted?
It turns out, this isn’t the first American couple to be kidnapped in Paris. Two others have suffered the same fate, creating a pattern the CIA is desperate to crack. They recruit, of all people, a young lawyer named Stuart Nash to help with the investigation. He’s never been part of law enforcement in his life, but he perfectly fits the profile of the other men who were taken.
To put it bluntly, he’s the bait. Now he just needs to convince the kidnappers that he and his new bride, a CIA agent working undercover, are worth taking.
In The French Illusion, John Grisham writes a fast-paced thriller that combines elements of a missing persons story, espionage, and terrorism. It makes for the kind of gripping read that I can’t get enough of. The early portions focusing on the kidnapped couples are harrowing, especially as we see what their families endure while desperately waiting for answers. Grisham gives the situation enough emotional weight that I was invested well before the espionage plot fully kicked into gear.
It isn’t until around the halfway mark that Stuart enters the picture, though if you read the “prequel” short story The Law Student, you might already know him. While the reason for his involvement in the plot to end these kidnappings feels a bit unbelievable, Grisham builds a compelling enough character that I was happy to just go with it.
My only real complaint is with the pacing of the novel as a whole. There’s so much time devoted to Stuart and his undercover “bride” preparing for their mission that the actual operation is relegated to only the final few chapters. After all that anticipation, I wanted more time to see everything unfold. It’s a shame because the rest of the novel is so much fun that I would’ve happily read a few more chapters to give the ending a little more room to breathe.
That said, The French Illusion is still a fun, if somewhat uneven, thriller from Grisham. I may have wanted a little more from the ending, but he had no trouble keeping me turning the pages to get there. After all these years, he’s still one of my most reliable go-to authors, and I’ll no doubt be back for whatever he releases next.
For more information, visit the author’s website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2026, 78)
I haven't read his books but I have watched the movies based on his books. This sounds like a good thriller even though everything unfolded fast.
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