"The Racketeer" by John Grisham

Perhaps one of the toughest jobs on the planet is to be a judge, especially when they have to make really tough decisions, such as: "Do I put him in prison for the rest of his life or the electric chair?".

As a matter fact, when taking into consideration that thousands of judges have passed on countless sentences, many of which ruined lives, it is sort of astonishing to learn that only four of them have died… or at least, that is the premise of John Grisham’s The Racketeer.

More precisely, the story touches on the life of Judge Raymond Fogletree, or more precisely, his untimely death. One day, he was found in the basement of his lakeside cabin along with his secretary, both having died from assassination.

However, there was no sign of a struggle or a forced entry; the murderer was someone close… but on the other hand, there are probably hundreds who wouldn’t mind hearing such news.

There is however one man, a lawyer who knows what happened and why it happened… even though he doesn’t know Judge Raymond. As a matter of fact, that someone happens to be in prison… as well as the narrator.

The Racketeer is John Grisham’s latest effort and is due to come out on October 23rd, 2012. Does it look like it will be good? Well, let’s forget for a second that John Grisham is one of the best-established authors of our generation and focus on the story itself.

This looks like a somewhat unusual take on the murder mystery genre, and actually reminds of The Man Who Wasn't There, a movie where the main character is actually narrating the whole story as a flashback from a prison… it almost feels like a Noir book.

All in all, this promises to be an entertaining, dramatic, thrilling, emotional and no-nonsense story about a very curious murder from the perspective of the man who knows who did it and why it happened.

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John Grisham Personal site John Grisham is an American lawyer, politician and author whose works have always been largely centered around the legal world. Many of his novels have been adapted into films, including The Firm, The Rainmaker and A Time to Kill. In 2005, he was the recipient of the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award.