
Maggie Gust
winetaster13@gmail.com
By John Grisham
Doubleday 2012
340 pages
As a long-time Grisham fan, I didn’t hesitate to read this book when it was recommended by a friend. It is never difficult to get engrossed in a Grisham novel, at least not his legal thrillers. I did not want to put this book down. I have not been this mesmerized by Grisham since The Client, my first Grisham novel.
The protagonist is Malcolm Bannister, a small-town Virginia lawyer imprisoned (wrongly) to a 10-year federal prison sentence for money laundering. We find him halfway through that term, when he has become disillusioned with just about everything. His wife divorced him two years previously and her new man is now father to Malcolm’s young son. He has realized the futility of trying to legally pursue evidence of his own innocence. Then a federal judge is murdered along with his secretary/lover in the judge’s very secluded mountain cabin and a large safe is open and empty. Malcolm tells his warden he knows who killed the judge and his lover and lays out his demands for

There are hints along the way about what Malcolm is really up to and by page 103, I thought I had it figured out. I did not. Perhaps you will. In the final two chapters, Grisham gives the reader “closure.” To tell you more would be to ruin the story for you.
If you read this book poolside or at the beach, be careful. Do not get so captivated that you forget to reapply your sunscreen!
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