A different plot than Grisham typically writes but certainly within his wheelhouse. Intriguing but (mostly) missing the legal thrill.

Loved this one. Funny and cleverly written.

From inside Trumble, a minimum security federal prison, three former judges calling themselves 'The Brethren' organise a legal advice and inmate 'social trial' system. Their main occupation however is running a mail extortion scam, they have carefully and meticulously set it up to make a great deal of money for a few unfortunate victims.

Outside, in the real world a CIA heavy is planning to back a political candidate in order to increase military spending. It is a beautifully organised campaign that has people excited and backers lining up to fund it. It also has the perfect man to lead it, Aaron Lake is a career politician with not a single blemish on his life or career. He is the perfect candidate.

And then, the Brethren choose the wrong target...

We all know John Grisham don't we? He is an institution and even if you have not read a lot of his novels, you are bound to have seen one of the movies made from them. It had been a long time since I had read a thriller, so it took me a while to get into the mindset and the writing style. But once I had, I enjoyed reading it considerably. The plot is solid, with good scenarios and well it is a well developed novel. I have been reading a lot of indie recently, so reading a professionally edited, professionally written, well printed and produced novel was a bit of a holiday. The characters are.... well written, if a tad bit generic. It took me a while to get them sorted in my head, especially the inmates. They were described so much in the third person and it took me about half the book for the individual differences to really kick in. That was ok, you didn't really NEED to tell them apart at first, and there were not that many other characters so it did not really interfere with the story.

In all it was a fun novel, which I enjoyed and I will remember the author next time I am looking for a very Americano style, well written, thriller.

Decent read by Grisham, but definitely not his best. The Brethren are three judges all serving time in a Florida Federal prison outside of Jacksonville for various scandalous deeds. One story arc concerns them and their "Angola" scheme (something like this did happen in Angola prison) to extort money from rich, closeted gay men. They took out an ad in some magazines, claiming they were in their 20s and looking for older men to be pen pals with. They had a picture of some guy to send the 'marks', and gradually try to reel them in by threating to expose them to their wives, etc. Their conduit to the outside is a sleazy drunk lawyer who pockets a third of their ill gotten gains.

The other story arc concerns the director of the CIA and the man he picks to be the next president. The CIA guy is an old Cold Warrior and is worried about Russia making a come-back. I should mention that this was first published in 2000. The director of the CIA picked a relatively unknown congressman from Arizona (Aaron Lake), promised him lots and lots of money, plus some rather unpleasant disasters in foreign lands (bombings, what have you) if he will run with a promise to double the defense budget. The disasters would promote a rally around the flag impulse for the American public and get Lake elected.

First off, there are no real characters to root for here; every one is sleazy and corrupt. Lake comes off the best, but still, he has no real moral values and is willing to be a CIA stooge to get elected president. The judges are terrible people and the various CIA agents are as amoral as their boss. Secondly, The Brethren has more than a whiff of homophobia and all the characters involved obviously despise the 'perverts' they extort. Hard to believe this was published in 2000! Finally, this must be the most cynical novel I have read in some time. Politics is all just about money and favors; elections can be bought, even the presidency. Not one of the characters has a stick of moral fiber.

I should say, however, that this novel is also a bit prophetic. We did get a Republican elected in 2000 and yes, he ramped up the military spending, started a few wars, etc. The federal budget surplus was also given away to tax cuts to the rich; both of these events were somewhat foretold here. This is a fast paced read, but for all that, rather boring as well. You know somehow there will be a connection between Lake and the brethren (pen pals...) leaving the big question of how the CIA will manage it when they find out. I was wavering between 2 and 3 stars on this one, but decided on 2, due to the horrible, amoral characters and the blatant homophobia.

De această dată subiectul abordat e diferit de cel cu care ne-a obișnuit Grisham. Dacă până acum aveam procese și strategii, de această dată tema e crearea, menținerea și protejarea unui nou președinte. Multe aspecte descrise le vedem și pe la noi, dar parcă e altceva când citești despre ele.

This book is very dated in terms of flat, fear-based national security politics, but it's OK because the entertaining part is in the other plot line. I enjoyed the prison scheming and the shady lawyer liaison. This is a forgettable book that is perfect for plane trips or when I'm burned out and want to read without thinking.

This is an enjoyable light read for when you have had your fill of theoretical non-fiction. It's a good story and nicely written in John Grisham style. I still feel that he is basically Jeffrey Archer's not-quite-so-good brother. Not bad though. Was a great holiday read that I will never read again.

Really enjoyed this one. It kept you guessing what would happen next. One of John Grisham's best.

This was great! Fun to read.

I asked my book group for a book as good as The Pelican Brief. This one was suggested as one of Grisham's best. It didn't live up to the recommendation though. I love so many of Grisham's books, but this one didn't quite make it for me.

Another enjoyable and easy-read by Grisham, for a while for me it was extremely hard to follow, where the main part of the story involves a scam, and for the longest time I wasn't sure who was scamming who, the story kept jumping around, but as it progressed it all started to some together.

They call themselves The Brethren, a trio of three-stooges type disgraced former judges who have been doing time in a minimum Florida federal prison known as Trumble. #1 is sent to prison for Tax Evasion, #2 for skimming bingo profits, and #3 for a career-ending drunken joyride But just because they're in prison doesn't mean they can't still break the law.

They have dreamt up a perfect scam, to pose as homosexuals looking for Pen Pals, their motive, to scam and exploit their pen pals. Then one day, Congressman Aaron Lake is running for President of the United States in hoping to expand America's Military capabilities, with a corrupt government official pulling the strings. Realizing that Lake is hooked by the Brethren and their scam, the conspirators must prevent them from discovering the truth. The Brethren have found the perfect victim.

As I said up above, really hard to follow for awhile, no idea where Grisham was going with the story, but then things started adding up the further I got. A fun political/legal thriller worth checking out!

The Sort of Book Most Appreciated by People who Move their Lips While Reading

Grisham pulled the plot of this novel from infamous prison pen pal scams near me in Louisiana and Mississippi in the late 1980s. The scam worked like this: the prisoner would engage an unwitting, relatively well off, closeted gay male in harmless discourse by letters which would gradually progress to professions of "love" and then explicit homo-erotic letters and ultimately one phone call by which point, the prisoner would have his hooks in the man, who typically had a wife and kids, and the blackmailing would begin.

I read nearly all the Grisham novels prior to my literary renascence starting in 2009. Even then, this novel seemed unrealistic and false, lacking a shred of suspense. You know what, I must maintain honesty in reviewing: [[n  THIS BOOK SUCKEDn.]]

It's a bullshit novel, so shallow, contrived, legally implausible and farcical that it deserves a place in the checkout line right between The Globe and The National Enquirer. Grisham must have been considering quitting his writing gig or was pissed off about having to write this, for whatever reason, say maybe because of contractual obligations when he wanted nothing else but to spend his cash traveling the world, or doing anything else besides writing legal thrillers.

"Scientists are now using lawyers instead of rats for their experiments. There are two reasons for this. The scientists don't become attached to the lawyers and there are some things rats won't do.

Robin Williams as a grown Peter Pan in n  Hookn (1991, Tri Star).