Book Review: The Racketeer
And the yearly ritual from John Grisham continues. With The Confession, The Litigators and now The Racketeer, his legal thrillers have found a new release month in October and I, being a loyal John Grisham fan, have been endlessly waiting for the book to arrive here in India ever since October 23. Obviously, passing the last couple of days haven't been that easy as my mind won't rest until I read his latest courtroom drama. My prayers have been thankfully answered today!
Grisham's profuseness is well-known; he has come out with a new novel every year since 1991, if we excuse a one year gap after his fantastic debut A Time to Kill in 1989. And American law, being a vastly exhaustive subject, gives him ample scope to pick and choose the legal principle he wants to base his narrative. In The Racketeer, he chooses Rule 35, which basically allows a reduction in a defendant's sentence if he provides substantial assistance in an ongoing investigation.
So let's get down to the brass tacks, shall we? Our protagonist is a forty-three year old Malcolm Bannister, an ex-lawyer serving a ten-year prison term at the Federal Prison Camp in Maryland for a crime he had no knowledge of. And he happens to be black. Five years have gone by and he dreads the thought of spending another equal amount of time incarcerated behind bars. It's in such a situation that he comes to know of the death of a famous federal judge, Raymond Fawcett, who was found dead along with his young secretary girlfriend at his lakeside cabin in Virginia.
The case becomes a media ruckus and with very few leads to go on, the federal agents's every line of investigation stalls and draws a blank. But Malcolm had been waiting for this moment. Not even remotely acquainted with the judge in any capacity, he knows one thing though - who killed him and why. Possessing the key that will possibly unshackle and open the doors to freedom, he needs to play his cards right and one slight mistake can land him back in prison.
This is the vintage Grisham we all have been waiting for and he is back with full guns blazing. No sermonizing, no preaching, The Racketeer is a smart revenge game that takes you by surprise at every possible twist and turn. The basic terrain, as you can see, is not entirely new and would be familiar to anyone who had been catching up on his previous works. Arresting an innocent man for a crime he did not commit? Sounds like The Innocent Man. Coerce a guy to confess to an offence by employing unscrupulous methods? Have already read it in The Confession. Yet Grisham is not lamenting the travesty of justice and their inclusion here is merely an aid to ramp up the excitement and thrills.
The novel, however, is not complete without his observations on the current system. He decries government expenditure on prisoners while failing to secure adequate funding to improve education. "In the United States we spend $40,000 a year to incarcerate each prison inmate and $8,000 to educate each elementary school student," observes Bannister early in the book. As the plot zips forward, the author deftly packages the suspense elements and we really don't get to understand the logic behind Malcolm's actions until very much later when the cloud of obscurity begins to clear off. It's in these places that Grisham shows what a master raconteur he can be if he wants to!
Malcolm as a lawyer facing legal trouble could be very much our Mitch McDeere or Kyle McAvoy of The Firm or The Associate, but by endowing him with a not so squeaky-clean image (like something akin to The Litigators), he is very much the realistic guy who would be willing to break the law to avenge his wrongful imprisonment. The other characters, including Vanessa as his girlfriend, provide much needed support and are equally delightful.
Grisham makes an interesting remark in the afterword when he says the book was 'a work of fiction' with research being 'hardly a priority' and that 'long paragraphs of fiction were used to avoid looking up facts'. He also considers himself to be 'the laziest of writers'. To be frank, he may be correct there. But who cares! He knows his skills lie in storytelling, and he spins a terrific yarn that's clever, devious and supremely entertaining. The Racketeer is the high-octane thriller you've been waiting for!
 |
| The Racketeer |
So let's get down to the brass tacks, shall we? Our protagonist is a forty-three year old Malcolm Bannister, an ex-lawyer serving a ten-year prison term at the Federal Prison Camp in Maryland for a crime he had no knowledge of. And he happens to be black. Five years have gone by and he dreads the thought of spending another equal amount of time incarcerated behind bars. It's in such a situation that he comes to know of the death of a famous federal judge, Raymond Fawcett, who was found dead along with his young secretary girlfriend at his lakeside cabin in Virginia.
The case becomes a media ruckus and with very few leads to go on, the federal agents's every line of investigation stalls and draws a blank. But Malcolm had been waiting for this moment. Not even remotely acquainted with the judge in any capacity, he knows one thing though - who killed him and why. Possessing the key that will possibly unshackle and open the doors to freedom, he needs to play his cards right and one slight mistake can land him back in prison.
This is the vintage Grisham we all have been waiting for and he is back with full guns blazing. No sermonizing, no preaching, The Racketeer is a smart revenge game that takes you by surprise at every possible twist and turn. The basic terrain, as you can see, is not entirely new and would be familiar to anyone who had been catching up on his previous works. Arresting an innocent man for a crime he did not commit? Sounds like The Innocent Man. Coerce a guy to confess to an offence by employing unscrupulous methods? Have already read it in The Confession. Yet Grisham is not lamenting the travesty of justice and their inclusion here is merely an aid to ramp up the excitement and thrills.
The novel, however, is not complete without his observations on the current system. He decries government expenditure on prisoners while failing to secure adequate funding to improve education. "In the United States we spend $40,000 a year to incarcerate each prison inmate and $8,000 to educate each elementary school student," observes Bannister early in the book. As the plot zips forward, the author deftly packages the suspense elements and we really don't get to understand the logic behind Malcolm's actions until very much later when the cloud of obscurity begins to clear off. It's in these places that Grisham shows what a master raconteur he can be if he wants to!
Malcolm as a lawyer facing legal trouble could be very much our Mitch McDeere or Kyle McAvoy of The Firm or The Associate, but by endowing him with a not so squeaky-clean image (like something akin to The Litigators), he is very much the realistic guy who would be willing to break the law to avenge his wrongful imprisonment. The other characters, including Vanessa as his girlfriend, provide much needed support and are equally delightful.
Grisham makes an interesting remark in the afterword when he says the book was 'a work of fiction' with research being 'hardly a priority' and that 'long paragraphs of fiction were used to avoid looking up facts'. He also considers himself to be 'the laziest of writers'. To be frank, he may be correct there. But who cares! He knows his skills lie in storytelling, and he spins a terrific yarn that's clever, devious and supremely entertaining. The Racketeer is the high-octane thriller you've been waiting for!
Comments
Post a Comment