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The Racketeer    by John Grisham Amazon.com order for
Racketeer
by John Grisham
Order:  USA  Can
Dell, 2013 (2012)
Paperback, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth

The Racketeer by John Grisham is a bit of a change from his usual fare. It's a thriller that won't stop thrilling and that you shouldn't miss.

Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become only the fifth federal judge to have been murdered. He and his lovely younger secretary were found shot to death in his lonely mountain cabin. His hidden safe had been completely emptied. What was in it is not known.

A prisoner at the Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland claims he knows who the murderer is and why the judge was killed. Disbarred lawyer Malcolm Bannister has been, to his mind, unjustly accused and convicted of a white collar crime. He is determined, after five years of incarceration, to get his sentence of ten years commuted. And now starts a story of such twists and turns, it's very hard to keep up.

Bannister notifies the FBI, hoping to make a deal with them. His methods of outwitting them are a delight to read. Many dubious characters are introduced. But no one without a very good reason. All are pivotal to the tale Grisham so cleverly tells. The plot is tightly written and the dialogue reads as though Grisham lived all of this. His travels take Bannister from Miami to the Caribbean and back again. All for his plan to disappear a rich man. Delightful thriller.

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