I would not say I'm a reluctant John Grisham reader. I just haven't felt a dying urge to search out his novels. Maybe I'm just afraid of any sort of legal setting and try to avoid it in any medium it's presented in. Finally, I picked up a paperback of Grisham's novel, Runaway Jury and plodded through it. Certainly he can present some very intriguing characters and situations, and his mastery of plot intricacies and how it plays out demonstrated to me why he has garnered the bestselling status he has. And yet, halfway through the book, I realized that, though all the characters were interesting, I didn't connect personally with any of them. They all seemed to be despicable, corrupted characters going about and doing despicable, corrupted deeds. Well, it's hard for me to not finish a book I've started, so I plodded through anyways, not really caring about the result. Imagine my surprise when Grisham pulled it off. He had a slam bang plot twist at the end, plus, he completely redeemed my view of a couple of the characters. I loved Runaway Jury and became an instant Grisham fan. By saying that, I don't mean, of course, that I went out and actually read more of his stuff (I mean, let's not get too carried away here), but I sure did like his one book I read. Fast forward a couple years (or a ton, I guess I'm not getting any younger). With a few minutes on hand and desperate to keep myself from using those few minutes from actually thinking in any way, I picked up the nearest book at hand in my parent's house. John Grisham's, The Brethren. Once again, Grisham reeled me in with an interesting premise and intriguing characters. About halfway through the novel, once again, I began to complain to my wife that there was no redeemable character, no one to root for, nothing to ultimately care about. As I told her this, I realized that Grisham must be pulling another one-two on me. Brilliant. He's hiding one of his good characters again and there will be a carefully contrived twist at the end. Bravo! With this in mind, I read much more enthusiastically. I even thought I figured out which character would be redeemed. I had it all worked out in my mind and wondered how Grisham was going to pull it off to match. And how did he? ... well, to my frustration, he didn't. No character redemption. No twist. The story ended, and that was it. Why? Why would Grisham do that? He had the ability ... he even had a probable character with which to do it ... but he chose the anti-climax instead. I have several theories. He was bitter that they changed parts of Runaway Jury for the movie, so he ensured that he would make this story completely unfilmable. Take that, Hollywood! Or, he was planning on turning it all around at the end, but he never figured out how to do it, a deadline came, so he just finished it and turned it in. Those are two major possibilities, but I suspect it was something different. I suspect he came up with a cool plot idea, and then decided to play it out. Then, at the end, the pay off is that the guys get away with their scheme. Ehhhh. I suppose that is a semi-forgivable offense. Unfortunately, the only way that works is if the reader isn't fully aware of some aspect of the scheme and then it is all revealed at the end and we are wowed and like the story. Not in this case. The scheme is given away, pretty much in its entirety, right off the bat. Therefore, when they get away with it in the end, I thought ... well, yeah, that's what they had planned. What's the big deal? Besides that, their big heist was something they couldn't have planned for and stumbled into by sheer dumb luck. So what do we have at the end? Unsympathetic criminals deceiving unsympathetic victims in a predictable, non-climax ending. Well, my Grisham experience is 1-1. I'm not looking for a tiebreaker, but I have a funny feeling one will end up finding me someday anyway.
I loved this book. The story is so irresistibly original. Three disgraced judges in prison have a scam extorting money from closeted homosexuals for their "retirement fund". What they're about to realize is that they've hooked the biggest fish in the ocean. This particular Grisham work is definitely one of his best. The pace is brilliantly fast that I couldn't stop reading this book when I started. The characters, especially the Judges are so terribly beautiful in their depiction. The writing is impeccable as always, as one can expect from John Grisham. And the ending, the ending was so satisfying. The best thing about this book is the three judges: Finn, Spicer, and Beetch. They're so evil and cunning yet you couldn't stop rooting for them. The cliche that good must always triumph over evil is ridiculed, stomped, spitted on, and abused by this book and it's hard not to cheer. For once, the protagonists are not the good guys. They're bad, so likable-y bad.
—Jr Bacdayan
John Grisham is one of my favorite authors, and I have a lot of respect for him. The characters in this book, however, were despicable. And thus, two stars. It's only redeeming value to me was the fact that it took place in Florida, near Jacksonville and Orange Park, where I have lived in the past. The story itself was completely and utterly depressing, and even more so because I feel that an author of Grisham's stature and qualifications will have done his research and that the premise is sound. Three judges in federal prison in Florida are running a scam. They pretend to be homosexual males and correspond with closet homosexuals on the outside. They persuade them to send money, which they deposit into an offshore bank, with the help of their sleazy lawyer. The problem is that one of their correspondents is now running for President of the United States. In comes the CIA, and they fix the situation for Teddy, the Director, who is the primary supporter of the candidate. If you believe in the American justice system, or have faith that the best man wins in a Presidential election, then don't read this book. Your ideals will be quashed. Grisham has done an excellent job of demonstrating just how far people with power can go to get what they want.
—Sharon
This is probably the 5th or 6th Grisham book that I have read and I would have to say that it is a middle of the pack book for him. It's isn't great but it also wasn't terrible. Most of the time when I pick up a Grisham book I have a hard time putting it down and will read it until it's finished. That was not the case with this book.The plot took a very long time to develop and once it did you could see the ending coming for about 100 pages. Usually with his books there is a surprise at the end but when this one ended it just left me feeling kind of slighted. It ended quickly and without much resolution. He kind of left it open for a follow up book but I don't know how he would do that. So in my mind the book just didn't seem complete which is a shame because the idea behind the plot is very good and very intriguing. I feel like so much more could have been done that wasn't.If you are a die hard Grisham fan and haven't read this book I would put it closer to the bottom of the list then the top of books that you still need to read of his.
—Eric Dunn
