✍ Scribed by Grisham, John
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
_*Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered.
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Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.
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__*Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s untimely demise? His name, for the moment, is Malcolm Bannister. Job status? Former attorney. Current residence? The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland.
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__On paper, Malcolm’s situation isn’t looking too good these days, but he’s got an ace up his sleeve. He knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and he knows why. The judge’s body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.
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__What was in the safe? The FBI would love to know. And Malcolm Bannister would love to tell them. But everything has a price—especially information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett’s death. And the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday . . .
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Nothing is as it seems and everything’s fair game in this wickedly clever new novel from John Grisham, the undisputed master of the legal thriller.
The Racketeer was one of Amazon's mystery/thriller Best Books of the Month picks for October. A Q&A with the author:
A federal judge is murdered, and our hero in prison knows who did it, and why.
What's on your nightstand/bedside table/Kindle?
Ian McEwan’s latest novel,Sweet Tooth ; a friend’s manuscript; and a Kindle Fire loaded with daily newspapers, magazines, and about three dozen books.
Top 3-5 favorite books of all time?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ; A Confederacy of Dunces ; The Grapes of Wrath ; Little Drummer Girl
Important book you never read?
There are so many.Atlas Shrugged , though I’ve been told for the past 30 years that it’s unreadable.
Book that made you want to become a writer?
To Kill a Mockingbird made me question race for the first time in my young, insulated, white life. It also inspired me to try and write something great.
Memorable author moment?
I received a note from Harper Lee, along with an autographed first edition of To Kill A Mockingbird.
What's your most prized/treasured possession?
A first edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , signed by the author.
Pen envy - book you wish you'd written?
Harry Potter – he’s the only dude I can’t outsell.
I’m 57 years old. Crushes are for sophomores.
What's favorite method of procrastination? Temptation? Vice?
Don’t get me started. I can waste enormous amounts of time, and with no guilt whatsoever. Currently, I’m doing so on the golf course, playing a game that I took up only four years ago and is driving me nuts.
What do you collect?
First editions, primarily Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck.
Best piece of fan mail you ever got?
The letter began: “As the newly elected President of the Arkansas Bar Association, it is incumbent upon me to suggest various topics for your future novels……” I don’t think I finished reading the letter.
What's next for you?
I’m hard at work on Theo 4 - “Theodore Boone, The Activist.”
See all of John Grisham's books.
Read a New York Times review of The Racketeer
(author photo by Bob Krasner)
'[T]his is not a story about a triumph or a miscarriage of courtroom justice. It's the more devious, surprising story of a smart man who gets even smarter once he spends five years honing his skills as a jailhouse lawyer -- and then expertly concocts an ingenious revenge scheme... Mr. Grisham writes with rekindled vigor here -- New York Times 'Grisham introduces a small-town Virginia lawyer named Malcolm Bannister, who's dubiously convicted of money laundering for a drug-lord client, and maps out a revenge plot from his federal penitentiary cell that's twice as elaborate as the one Alexandre Dumas cooked up in The Count of Monte Cristo. Like many a Grisham hero, Mal is a legal insider who knows how to work the system to his advantage. He's also a peculiarly lone wolf, willing to shed all his family ties in pursuit of a very long and entertaining con.' -- Entertainment Weekly 'Grisham controls the unfolding of his narrative with the skill born of his long experience as a thriller writer.' -- Sunday Times 'The key ingredients of Grisham's successful franchise are all here: the small man pitted against formidable odds armed only with his wits and the battered shield that is the law.' -- Express Praise for THE LITIGATORS:'Grisham is brilliantly comic in a novel that is full of zest and brimming with memorable characters and rich storylines' -- The Sunday Times 'A superbly plotted legal thriller' -- Sunday Express Praise for John Grisham:'The best thriller writer alive' -- Ken Follett, Evening Standard 'Grisham is a superb, instinctive storyteller' -- The Times
📜 SIMILAR VOLUMES
_**Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.**
_**Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.**
*\*Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered.* *Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.* **