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Book Review: The Racketeer

    Hey, everyone. I just finished the novel by John Grisham titled The Racketeer. I had received it, in hardcover, for a Christmas gift. I thought that I would share a few thoughts on the book. Here's the recipe.
     Malcolm Bannister is a former attorney who got caught on the fringe of an FBI investigation. He is in a minimum security prison. He plans to parlay some secret knowledge into freedom. Because he helps other prisoners with their legal woes, he is privy to information concerning the murder of a Federal judge, Ray Fawcett. Fawcett and his secretary were killed at a remote cabin and the judge's safe was robbed. The FBI are under massive pressure to get results in the case and are willing to deal with Bannister. He 'gives' them a guy named Quinn Rucker, who certainly had reason to hate the judge, because the judge had sentenced Quinn's relative to prison, despite a significant bribe.
      Well, Quinn is arrested, confesses to the murders and the FBI folks are grateful. Malcolm is released from prison, placed in Witness Protection, and given a reward of $150,000. Living in Florida, enjoying the beach, you'd think Malcolm would be content. No. He has an agenda. That agenda involves stuff like $8,000,000 in gold, duping the real killers, and exposing corruption at the higher levels of government.
      This novel is a good novel. It is not a great novel. Everything Grisham writes is a bestseller and deservedly so. I have read a lot of his books and enjoyed all of them. This one is a mite slow and though certainly enjoyable, it will likely not be placed beside Grisham's top books.
    From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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