The latest John Grisham book, “The Racketeer,” is an
entertaining read. Malcolm Bannister is a disbarred attorney who is in prison
after getting convicted in a money laundering scheme. He says he was not
guilty. In prison, he quickly got a reputation as a good “jailhouse lawyer,”
literally. He had some success getting some sentences of some of his buddies
reduced, and he now has a scheme to get his own 10-year sentence reduced. A
federal judge has been murdered, and Malcolm claims to know the killer, and the
feds really want to solve this crime. That’s all you need to know. In the midst
of main story line, Grisham takes off on a tangent without explaining why he’s
going there, and it takes a while for him to bring it back to the main plot,
but in the end, it all makes sense. Grisham does not speak fondly of the
Federal Prison System and the people who run it. He thought the prosecutors
were much more interested in getting convictions for their own records rather
than seeking the truth of any particular situation, often by preying on the
defenseless. By reading this, you’ll get a new view of prison life and more
info about the federal witness protection program. As usual, he adds in great
subplots. This is a good book, and it gets my recommendation. Amazon readers
gave it 4/5, and that’s about right.Monday, November 19, 2012
The Racketeer
The latest John Grisham book, “The Racketeer,” is an
entertaining read. Malcolm Bannister is a disbarred attorney who is in prison
after getting convicted in a money laundering scheme. He says he was not
guilty. In prison, he quickly got a reputation as a good “jailhouse lawyer,”
literally. He had some success getting some sentences of some of his buddies
reduced, and he now has a scheme to get his own 10-year sentence reduced. A
federal judge has been murdered, and Malcolm claims to know the killer, and the
feds really want to solve this crime. That’s all you need to know. In the midst
of main story line, Grisham takes off on a tangent without explaining why he’s
going there, and it takes a while for him to bring it back to the main plot,
but in the end, it all makes sense. Grisham does not speak fondly of the
Federal Prison System and the people who run it. He thought the prosecutors
were much more interested in getting convictions for their own records rather
than seeking the truth of any particular situation, often by preying on the
defenseless. By reading this, you’ll get a new view of prison life and more
info about the federal witness protection program. As usual, he adds in great
subplots. This is a good book, and it gets my recommendation. Amazon readers
gave it 4/5, and that’s about right.
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I also found Racketeer great entertainment. I appreciate that Grisham's formula never involves reoccuring charaters so you get a fresh storyline in every book. The plot's similarity to the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption was so striking I began hearing Morgan Freeman's voice in my head as Malcolm told his story in first person...wierd.
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