Catching up on Grisham Books (2)
MUST READ: ALL THREE
The Whistler (2016)
A once disbarred, ex-con lawyer named Ramsey Mix contacts the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct (BJC) with the information of the most corrupt judge in US history. Lacy Stoltz, an investigator with the Board, and her partner, Hugo Hatch, are assigned to the case. The judge in question has been aiding the local mafia skimming money from the Indian casinos and covering for the mafia’s various crimes, including murders. She is revealed to be Claudia McDover, and Mix supplies the information on behalf of a mole who wants to file a claim under the Florida Whistleblower Statute and collect possibly millions from it.
This is a story of two mice trying to corner several huge cats. For five minutes, it spooked me to drive alone at night. Also, after Gray Mountain, this pattern of pulling the rug from under the feet in the middle of the plotlines feels familiar to me. Is this new? I don’t remember this in Grisham's older books. What did he do to shock us before?
Of course, this book is more thrilling than my lazy a** knows how to describe. Read it.
The Rooster Bar (2017)
Mark Frazier, Todd Lucero, Zola Maal and her boyfriend Gordon Tanner are friends and third-year students at Foggy Bottom Law School (FBLS), which is perfectly branded, by the way. How else should you name a diploma mill?
Gordon is off his bipolar meds. He now apparently discovers that the owner of FBLS, Hinds Rackley – who also runs a network of law schools, banks and law firms – has created a scheme that ensures the college students are trapped in a cycle of debt, with no employment in sight, while he pockets millions from it. Although the practice isn't illegal, Gordon insists the scam should be exposed as it is, and there's enough for a class action lawsuit. In the middle of his friends processing the info and taking care of his worsening mental breakdown, Gordon sneaks out and commits suicide.
Distraught by the tragedy and disheartened by their bleak future, Mark and Todd quit FBLS with one semester left. Naturally, together with Zola, they create a fake law firm and start taking up legal cases. The enterprise goes on for a while before they get reported to the DC bar. As the investigators are closing in, the three decide to target and sue Rackley’s Swift Bank on behalf of thousands of fake clients, hoping the money will help them flee and settle in another country.
This could be fun as a movie. The ending is sort of a victory for the trio. Sort of because I don’t understand the concept of being rich – or having a lot of money – but not free. Eh. What do I know? Huge chance it’s better than the opposite.
The Reckoning (2018)
The story centres around a WWII hero Pete Banning, divided into three parts.
In the beginning of Part One, we learn about Pete’s super boring life post-war as a cotton farm owner in a small town in Mississippi. His wife Liza has recently been committed to a mental hospital, his children Joel and Stella are in college, and his sister Florry, who lives in a different property on the same family’s land, is a writer – depending on who you ask. Same, Florry. Same.
One fine morning, Pete decides to kill the town’s pastor named Dexter Bell. Refusing to confess the motive in exchange for a life sentence, Pete is sentenced to death by electrocution. It is implied, however, that he murdered Bell to avenge Liza for something Bell did to her when Pete was away during the war.
Part Two is the flashback to Pete’s time during the war, being posted to the Pacific, which is brutal and violates my promise to not read depressing stories.
And there is no walk in the park in Part Three either, which tells the aftermath of Pete’s execution. It is revealed in the end to Joel and Stella of the actual role Dexter Bell played in Liza’s life, which makes the whole tragedy even more f-ed up than everyone thought it was. This is misery all around.
Images: jgrisham.com
The Whistler (2016)
A once disbarred, ex-con lawyer named Ramsey Mix contacts the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct (BJC) with the information of the most corrupt judge in US history. Lacy Stoltz, an investigator with the Board, and her partner, Hugo Hatch, are assigned to the case. The judge in question has been aiding the local mafia skimming money from the Indian casinos and covering for the mafia’s various crimes, including murders. She is revealed to be Claudia McDover, and Mix supplies the information on behalf of a mole who wants to file a claim under the Florida Whistleblower Statute and collect possibly millions from it.
This is a story of two mice trying to corner several huge cats. For five minutes, it spooked me to drive alone at night. Also, after Gray Mountain, this pattern of pulling the rug from under the feet in the middle of the plotlines feels familiar to me. Is this new? I don’t remember this in Grisham's older books. What did he do to shock us before?
Of course, this book is more thrilling than my lazy a** knows how to describe. Read it.
The Rooster Bar (2017)
Mark Frazier, Todd Lucero, Zola Maal and her boyfriend Gordon Tanner are friends and third-year students at Foggy Bottom Law School (FBLS), which is perfectly branded, by the way. How else should you name a diploma mill?
Gordon is off his bipolar meds. He now apparently discovers that the owner of FBLS, Hinds Rackley – who also runs a network of law schools, banks and law firms – has created a scheme that ensures the college students are trapped in a cycle of debt, with no employment in sight, while he pockets millions from it. Although the practice isn't illegal, Gordon insists the scam should be exposed as it is, and there's enough for a class action lawsuit. In the middle of his friends processing the info and taking care of his worsening mental breakdown, Gordon sneaks out and commits suicide.
Distraught by the tragedy and disheartened by their bleak future, Mark and Todd quit FBLS with one semester left. Naturally, together with Zola, they create a fake law firm and start taking up legal cases. The enterprise goes on for a while before they get reported to the DC bar. As the investigators are closing in, the three decide to target and sue Rackley’s Swift Bank on behalf of thousands of fake clients, hoping the money will help them flee and settle in another country.
This could be fun as a movie. The ending is sort of a victory for the trio. Sort of because I don’t understand the concept of being rich – or having a lot of money – but not free. Eh. What do I know? Huge chance it’s better than the opposite.
The Reckoning (2018)
The story centres around a WWII hero Pete Banning, divided into three parts.
In the beginning of Part One, we learn about Pete’s super boring life post-war as a cotton farm owner in a small town in Mississippi. His wife Liza has recently been committed to a mental hospital, his children Joel and Stella are in college, and his sister Florry, who lives in a different property on the same family’s land, is a writer – depending on who you ask. Same, Florry. Same.
One fine morning, Pete decides to kill the town’s pastor named Dexter Bell. Refusing to confess the motive in exchange for a life sentence, Pete is sentenced to death by electrocution. It is implied, however, that he murdered Bell to avenge Liza for something Bell did to her when Pete was away during the war.
Part Two is the flashback to Pete’s time during the war, being posted to the Pacific, which is brutal and violates my promise to not read depressing stories.
And there is no walk in the park in Part Three either, which tells the aftermath of Pete’s execution. It is revealed in the end to Joel and Stella of the actual role Dexter Bell played in Liza’s life, which makes the whole tragedy even more f-ed up than everyone thought it was. This is misery all around.
Images: jgrisham.com
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