silverneurotic

From Goodreads: 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.

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.

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.

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 . . .

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.

 

This review is long overdue so now I'm stuck with the uncomfortable task of trying to write a comprehensive review on a book that I do not remember very well. I do remember not liking it, but wanting to enjoy it. I even remember that there were a few chapters that did stand out as being almost perfect...but then they were followed up by chapters that boardered between mediocre and just plain bad.

Although The Racketeer was a legal thriller, it was not a book in which Grisham did his usual extensive research for and it definitely showed that this book was one where Grisham allowed his imagination run away from him which was okay, it almost worked. But then after away it kind of fell apart and Grisham lost the control. 

I actually think it's going to be awhile before I attempt another John Grisham novel.