THE RACKETEER by John Grisham

 

It's not great literature but it is certainly entertaining.
Originally published in October of 2012

John Grisham and I have an on again, off again relationship (as reader and writer, I have not had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman in person.) I grew tired of his legal thrillers and of late I have been occasionally listening to his regular novels like A Painted House or Bleachers. 

 The Racketeer is my first legal thriller of Grisham's that I have read in more than five years, but even Grisham admits in the author's note that as a thriller it's fairly long on story and not so deep on the minutiae of the courthouse. All that is true, but it is a compelling read - a real page turner that I blasted through at a very fast pace for me (I tend to doggedly plod through books rather than blast through them).
The story starts out simply enough. A small town black lawyer named Malcolm Bannister gets caught up in a real estate scheme thought up by a Washington, D.C. insider. This is a spectacular case of fraud, bribery, prostitution and all this small time attorney did was help broker a small real estate deal. He is innocent He knew nothing of the overall plan but he is accused and convicted of the federal crime of racketeering (obtaining money illegally, such as by fraud or extortion). He loses his wife, his family and the respect of his father. He has nothing.

 Bannister has serves as a jailhouse attorney while he is serving his sentence in a low security prison and he has heard lots of stories from his clients (his fellow prisoners). When a federal judge is murdered Bannister approaches the warden and tells him that he is sure that he knows who did it and will trade that information for a full pardon and a new life in the witness protection program.
However, once Bannister gets out he starts to act very strangely and this is when the story gets interesting when Bannister puts on his white Panama hat and begins to act on his own plan that he has been developing in prison for all of these years...

 Like I said, this story caught me up and carried me away. It's not great literature but it is certainly entertaining.

 I rate this novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Racketeer by John Grisham.

Reviewed on October 16, 2014.

Comments

  1. Neha ShayarNovember 18, 2014 at 12:00 PM

    A typical Grisham plot. Gripping and fast paced. However except for the protagonist being a lawyer nothing to do with law. plain old murder mystery.

    ReplyDelete

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