Catching up on Grisham Books (4)
The Judge's List (2021)
Lacy Stoltz from The Whistler is back. She's contacted by Jeri Crosby, who wants her to investigate a Florida circuit judge whom Jeri's certain is a murderer with multiple victims. One of the victims was Bryan Burke, Jeri's father. The case was never solved, and it happened 22 years ago. Burke was a retired law professor, and the judge in question was one of his students. And the motive is insane: apparently, this man felt humiliated by a heated debate he had with Burke in class, which led him to have an episode of mental breakdown.
Jeri has no proof to back up her claim, but from two decades of investigating her father's murder, she has identified five other victims along the way, and they were all connected by two things: they were killed by a hit on the head, then strangled by the same type of rope, and they all had wronged this judge in some way. Lacy later figures out that the judge is Ross Bannick. And because Lacy is also a Grisham's character, she's uninterested and skeptical at first.
The scary thing about Bannick is, besides that he murders people, he's also smart, powerful, a patient sociopath and has a lot of resources. It's not easy to nail him.
Just like The Whistler, this book spooked me too. The ending was a brutal read.
The Exchange (2023)
Apparently, this is a sequel to The Firm, which I remember nothing about other than two details: it involved a cat-and-mouse chase with the Mafia, and the movie starred Tom Cruise.
In The Exchange, the year is 2005. Mitch McDeere is now a partner in the world’s largest law firm, New York’s Scully & Pershing. He’s asked to represent a Turkish construction company, Lannak, taking over from Luca Sandroni, his mentor from their Rome office, who’s just been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. Lannak is suing Gaddafi’s Libya for over $400m, the remaining payment still owed to them for building a useless bridge in the desert. Luca asks Mitch to take his daughter, Giovanna, an associate based in their London office, on board with the case.
On the trip to inspect the bridge, Giovanna is abducted, and her security team is brutally executed. No responsible party is being identified, other than they have to be “terrorists”.
A month into the abduction, the terrorists make contact with – of all people – Mitch's wife, Abby, asking $100m for Giovanna’s safe return in a 10-day deadline. Now it’s a race against time to raise the funds from various parties: Scully, its insurance company, Luca, Lannak, and – in a back channel way – the governments of Italy, UK and eventually US.
This is pretty much Grisham's usual thriller. It's gripping, gory, and your usual round of challenge to register a gazillion details. Although, sometimes it can be hilarious too – in the middle of an escalated tension in a foreign country, for example, the characters would suddenly get into a tourist mode, excited about a restaurant or a spot in a city 🫠.
Camino Ghosts (2024)
Dark Isle is a small deserted island near Camino, which used to be a runaway slaves haven in the 18th century. In 1760, a slave ship heading to Georgia was wrecked by a storm near the island, killing most of the people on board. One of the survivors washed ashore was Nalla. The first few chapters of Camino Ghosts tell the journey of Nalla and her people being kidnapped from their villages in Africa, then shipped to America in the most unimaginable conditions. It's pure torture and misery.
In 2020, Mercer is back on Camino, also looking for a new story to write. Bruce suggests she write about Dark Isle, based on a self-published book by Nalla's descendant, Lovely Jackson. Lovely and her mother left the island in 1955 when they became the last two persons of their people, but she still claims ownership to it by adverse possession.
There's another interested party to the island: a developer called Tidal Breeze, which plans to build condos, resorts, golf courses and a casino on it. The project is opposed by the environmental groups and, of course, Lovely, who asserts that the land is also a sacred burial place of her ancestors.
The lack of paperwork and property deed makes Lovely's claim tricky. But her claim that the island is cursed and protected by Nalla, a witch doctor, is trickier 😅. Legend has it that no White men have ever come out alive off their trips to the island.
Bruce and Mercer rally to help Lovely. And we meet more new characters on Camino. Among them are Steven Mahon, the friendly lawyer; Diane Krug, the mighty intern; and Gifford Knox, the loud friend. As usual, Grisham would drop too many names, companies, law firms and
places – and on Camino Ghosts, it's on steroids. And if I've ever said Grisham's characters can be uninspiring, here comes Diane, tackling millions of things like a ninja.
Another ninja is Bruce's bookshop Bay Books’ entertainment budget for endless parties and signings.
Images: jgrisham.com
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