The Racketeer: A Novel by John Grisham (Epub)

Description

In the history of the United States, only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five. His body is found in his remote lakeside cabin. There is no sign of forced entry or struggle. Just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.

One man, a former attorney, knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and why. But that man, Malcolm Bannister, is currently residing in the Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland. Though serving time, Malcolm has an ace up his sleeve. He has information the FBI would love to know. Malcolm would love to tell them. But everything has a price—and the man known as the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday.

Praise for The Racketeer

“Exhilarating . . . surprising . . . ingenious.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“A satisfying, deeply engrossing thriller in which different forms of justice are ultimately served.”—The Washington Post

“Fast-paced . . . with enough startling plot twists—and changes of scenery, from Miami to Montego Bay and beyond—to surprise even the most suspicious reader.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Tautly plotted.”—Entertainment Weekly

User’s Reviews

Amazon.com Review The Racketeer was one of Amazon’s mystery/thriller Best Books of the Month picks for October. A Q&A with the author: Describe The Racketeer in one sentence. 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. Author crush – who’s your current author crush? 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) –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Review “Exhilarating . . . surprising . . . ingenious.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “The Racketeer is guilty of only one thing: keeping us engaged until the very last page.”—USA Today “A satisfying, deeply engrossing thriller in which different forms of justice are ultimately served.”—The Washington Post “Fast-paced . . . with enough startling plot twists—and changes of scenery, from Miami to Montego Bay and beyond—to surprise even the most suspicious reader.”—The Wall Street Journal “Tautly plotted.”—Entertainment Weekly –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ Malcolm Bannister was living the life of a retail lawyer in a Virginia town, doing real estate transactions, wills, and the other routine work which occupies a three partner firm, paying the bills but never striking it rich. A law school classmate contacts him and lets him know there’s a potentially large commission available for negotiating the purchase of a hunting lodge in rural Virginia for an anonymous client. Bannister doesn’t like the smell of the transaction, especially after a number of odd twists and turns during the negotiation, but bills must be paid, and this fee will go a long way toward that goal. Without any warning, during a civic function, costumed goons arrest him and perp-walk him before previously-arranged state media. He, based upon his holding funds in escrow for a real estate transaction, is accused of “money laundering” and indicted as part of a RICO prosecution of a Washington influence peddler. Railroaded through the “justice system” by an ambitious federal prosecutor and sentenced by a vindictive judge, he finds himself imprisoned for ten years at a “Club Fed” facility along with other nonviolent “criminals”.Five years into his sentence, he has become the librarian and “jailhouse lawyer” of the prison, filing motions on behalf of his fellow inmates and, on occasion, seeing injustices in their convictions reversed. He has lost everything else: his wife has divorced him and remarried, and his law license has been revoked; he has little hope of resuming his career after release.A jailhouse lawyer hears many things from his “clients”: some boastful, others bogus, but some revealing secrets which those holding them think might help to get them out. When a federal judge is murdered, Bannister knows, from his contacts in prison, precisely who committed the crime and leverages his position to obtain his own release, disappearance into witness protection, and immunity from prosecution for earlier acts. The FBI, under pressure to solve the case and with no other leads, is persuaded by what Bannister has to offer and takes him up on the deal.A jailhouse lawyer, wrongly convicted on a bogus charge by a despotic regime has a great deal of time to ponder how he has been wronged, identify those responsible, and slowly and surely draw his plans against them.This is one of the best revenge novels I’ve read, and it’s particularly appropriate since it takes down the tyrannical regime which incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any serious country and shows how a clever individual can always outwit the bumbling collectivist leviathan as long as he refuses to engage it on level terrain but always exploits agility against the saurian brain reaction time of the state.The only goof I noticed is that on a flight from Puerto Rico to Atlanta, passengers are required to go through passport control. As this is a domestic flight from a U.S. territory to the U.S. mainland, no passport check should be required.I wouldn’t call this a libertarian novel, as the author accepts the coercive structure of the state as a given, but it’s a delightful tale of somebody who has been wronged by that foul criminal enterprise obtaining pay-back by wit and guile.

⭐ Although I downloaded this book in 2014 for some reason I “lost” it on my Kindle. As this plot revolves on the premise FBI agents use less than honorable methods such as making threats of prosecution of family and friends of the defendant. Also there is a subplot of a uranium Russia deal under Clinton. A lawyer is sent to federal prison under Rico act. He was innocent While serving his sentence he becomes aware of facts regarding the murder of a federal judge. This allows him an opportunity to have have his sentence commuted by giving up the murderer. How he gets back at the FBI is a really good story. Given today’s drama with the Mueller-Rosenstein debacle with rogue FBI personnel at the highest level and the Clinton Uranium deal with Russia this book read today was much more interesting. I recommend it highly.

⭐ The story is fast-paced from the very start. The plot unfolds bit by bit, and becomes obvious as you get into the last few chapters. The main characters are well fleshed-out as the story unfolds.While all the above is true, the author falls short of the excellence shown in his earlier works. The story lacks the depth of his prior works. It reads almost like a “hurry up and publish” book. Mr. Grisham’s first several novels were “riveting” in plot and action, and superb in the writing. He is capable of excellence. Unfortunately his ability as a “wordsmith” is hidden in this novel. I hope he gets back to the excellent writing and “Nail-Biter” plots of his court room dramas. Yes, It is worth the read…It IS a Grisham, but if you grew-up on The Pelican Brief and Time to Kill…be prepared for a bit of disappointment.

⭐ I’ve read this book before, years ago, but as I do with most of his books, I read them quickly and then later I take the time to really savor them. I enjoy reading them the second time through probably more than the first time because I pick up more of the small interesting details. Grisham is about the best at details and yet, he doesn’t get bogged down in them. He doesn’t go on and on about what the character is wearing,for instance, unless it has to do with something necessary at that moment. Even then he covers only brief items. I like that. I skip over those parts in other books. Grisham does do a fantastic job of developing the characters of his books. Our feel like you know them personally. His story lines are always good and like this story full of twists and turns. Fantastic book!

⭐ I think the author described this book best at the conclusion of the book. He states that there was no research done and that “long paragraphs of fiction were used to keep from looking up facts.” Aptly describing himself, he also says that”even the laziest of writers need some foundation for their creations” so he thanks a few people. I have read and liked some of his books, but this is the last one for me. I detested the stereotypes of the characters and the plot, although at first interesting, was filled w such success for the main character that it was laughable. I agree w the other reviewer who said he gave it one star for suckering him into buying the book. I wish I could get my money back for this one and buy something that another author put some effort into writing. I’m amazed at the good reviews this book received. In my opinion, don’t waste your money on this one.

⭐ The book keep my total attention until “literally” the last few pages when the ending left one with a “did I spend all this time” feeling. If the ending did more to expand how the plot had been conceived by the main characters and carried out, it would have been more satisfying. But, alas, that was not the case. This novel was not up to Grisham’s usual ability to keep the reader’s interest until the very end.

⭐ Prior to reading The Racketeer, I’ve been a fan of John Grisham since The Firm was published and enjoyed — though to varying degrees — all of the many books of his that I read, but one. Now, after finishing The Racketeer, it becomes the second Grisham that I disliked.I won’t spend time offering a summary of this book since this can be found in the Amazon Book Description above and in many reader reviews. Instead, this review will focus on why I was disappointed in it and, thus, why it is not a book I’d recommend you rush out to read.In fairness to Grisham, my problem with The Racketeer had nothing to do with his writing style, as Grisham does a good job in moving the book along at a pretty fast-paced, easy to read manner. As such, I never felt that the book dragged or was boring. Rather, my problems with The Racketeer stem from two factors: 1) without getting into specifics and run the risk of providing spoilers, the scheme on which the plot is based is almost totally preposterous; and 2) none of the characters are credible to me, nor are any of them likable; resulting in my not caring what happened to any of them.While I am usually very liberal in my willingness to suspend disbelief when reading a thriller, The Racketeer, despite its moving along at a fast pace, pushed me well beyond my limits in this area. As a consequence, although it was readable for me, it is not recommendable. I hope this review is helpful in deciding if The Racketeer is a book for you.

⭐ Grisham has to be one of the most overrated authors ever. I’ve wasted money on his books a couple times before and sworn to myself never to read another one…but in a moment of weakness I picked up The Racketeer. And to my great surprise I enjoyed this tale for exactly 75% of the book…then the plot turned into an outlandish dumpster fire of epic proportions. Seriously, Grishmam must have been drunk as a skunk to concoct such nonsense. RUN don’t walk away from this turd bucket.

⭐ I am disappointed by this less than average effort on the author’s part. I’ve come to expect a certain standard of a book with the name Grisham on the front cover. This book does not meet this standard. The plot jumps all over the place, barely clinging together. I felt like I was reading a book put together on the fly. Some of the settings and situations were not believable due to lack of research. As a matter of fact, the author basically confirms this in the Author’s Note at the end of the book: ” Almost nothing in the previous 340-odd pages is based on reality. Research, hardly a priority, was rarely called upon. Accuracy was not deemed crucial. Long paragraphs of fiction were used to avoid looking up facts. ”I wish the note had been at the front of the book. I could have saved myself the time and money.

⭐ My fist Grisham and a bit of a disappointment.It started out great. I really enjoyed the book till about half way through and then it fell flat.I did not like any character and for me to like a book there has to be someone, any one, with some redeeming qualities. There has to be a hero. There has to be someone I can root for. I didn’t find a single person, or in-fact institution, that I can support. That was my biggest problem with it.I was hoping the protagonist Mal/Max can be that be it really took a turn for the worst.The way that the actual killer was set up and framed, even though far fetched (I’m actually okay with things being far fetched), was just so cold that it left me thinking “yeah this guy has done it but he hasn’t really done anything to deserve being treated like this by Max when he hasn’t done anything wrong with Max”. This just made me dislike everyone else even more.The appearance of the girlfriend from the middle of no where was just ridiculous. Mal didn’t even think of her till about 50% of the book! She felt a little forced to me.I think the only thing that kept me reading this book till the end is the first half. It was intriguing till that point then just got tedious.I hope my next Grisham is better than this one.

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