Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered.

Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.

Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s untimely demise? His name, for the moment, is Malcolm Bannister. Job status? Former attorney. Current residence? The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland.

On paper, Malcolm’s situation isn’t looking too good these days, but he’s got an ace up his sleeve. He knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and he knows why. The judge’s body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.

What was in the safe? The FBI would love to know. And Malcolm Bannister would love to tell them. But everything has a price—especially information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett’s death. And the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday....

Nothing is as it seems and everything’s fair game in this wickedly clever new novel from John Grisham, the undisputed master of the legal thriller.

Listening Length

12 hours and 46 minutes
Author

John Grisham
Narrator

JD Jackson
Audible release date

October 23, 2012
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audio
ASIN

B009UX6DYA
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	12 hours and 46 minutes
Author	John Grisham
Narrator	JD Jackson
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	October 23, 2012
Publisher	Random House Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B009UX6DYA
Best Sellers Rank	#2,306 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #13 in Legal Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #37 in Legal Thrillers (Books) #249 in Suspense (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

28,412 global ratings

5 star		58%
4 star		27%
3 star		10%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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mary

Fantastic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 1, 2023

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This book was absolutely great I never expected it to end the way it did. I think I'm a pretty smart person but I didn't see any of it coming I could read it again. If you are looking for a good book I don't want to tell you anything about it get this book it was great I can't say enough about it

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John Walker

Excellent revenge tale of a lawyer wrongfully incarcerated

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 18, 2020

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Malcolm Bannister was living the life of a retail lawyer in a Virginia town, doing real estate transactions, wills, and the other routine work which occupies a three partner firm, paying the bills but never striking it rich. A law school classmate contacts him and lets him know there's a potentially large commission available for negotiating the purchase of a hunting lodge in rural Virginia for an anonymous client. Bannister doesn't like the smell of the transaction, especially after a number of odd twists and turns during the negotiation, but bills must be paid, and this fee will go a long way toward that goal. Without any warning, during a civic function, costumed goons arrest him and perp-walk him before previously-arranged state media. He, based upon his holding funds in escrow for a real estate transaction, is accused of “money laundering” and indicted as part of a RICO prosecution of a Washington influence peddler. Railroaded through the “justice system” by an ambitious federal prosecutor and sentenced by a vindictive judge, he finds himself imprisoned for ten years at a “Club Fed” facility along with other nonviolent “criminals”.

Five years into his sentence, he has become the librarian and “jailhouse lawyer” of the prison, filing motions on behalf of his fellow inmates and, on occasion, seeing injustices in their convictions reversed. He has lost everything else: his wife has divorced him and remarried, and his law license has been revoked; he has little hope of resuming his career after release.

A jailhouse lawyer hears many things from his “clients”: some boastful, others bogus, but some revealing secrets which those holding them think might help to get them out. When a federal judge is murdered, Bannister knows, from his contacts in prison, precisely who committed the crime and leverages his position to obtain his own release, disappearance into witness protection, and immunity from prosecution for earlier acts. The FBI, under pressure to solve the case and with no other leads, is persuaded by what Bannister has to offer and takes him up on the deal.

A jailhouse lawyer, wrongly convicted on a bogus charge by a despotic regime has a great deal of time to ponder how he has been wronged, identify those responsible, and slowly and surely draw his plans against them.

This is one of the best revenge novels I've read, and it's particularly appropriate since it takes down the tyrannical regime which incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any serious country and shows how a clever individual can always outwit the bumbling collectivist leviathan as long as he refuses to engage it on level terrain but always exploits agility against the saurian brain reaction time of the state.

The only goof I noticed is that on a flight from Puerto Rico to Atlanta, passengers are required to go through passport control. As this is a domestic flight from a U.S. territory to the U.S. mainland, no passport check should be required.

I wouldn't call this a libertarian novel, as the author accepts the coercive structure of the state as a given, but it's a delightful tale of somebody who has been wronged by that foul criminal enterprise obtaining pay-back by wit and guile.

44 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Better Than The Proverbial Pot Of Gold

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 15, 2022

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A cunningly written feel good page burner with all the proper twists and turns to avoid people like myself from figuring out the end play ahead of the end, as I often do.

One person found this helpful

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dayle hushagen

Best Grisham book I've read in years!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2023

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So good!!

One person found this helpful

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Phil in Magnolia

Another Entertaining Legal Tale from John Grisham

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 26, 2012

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I have been looking forward to receiving Grisham's latest since it was offered for pre-order earlier this past summer. When I received it just two days ago, I was ready and hopeful, and read it with few interruptions.

The story is entertaining and moves along quickly. The basic plot concerns an attorney, Malcolm Bannister, who is (according to him) unfairly incarcerated simply because he happened to pick the wrong client to represent, and in so doing he becomes swept up in a larger federal crackdown of his clients network of crimes.

Halfway through a ten-year stretch in a low-security prison, he is passing the time by taking care of the prison library and acting as an unofficial advocate for his fellow inmates, helping them where he can in filing appeals and providing other legal advice. While he is in prison, a federal judge is killed. Soon thereafter, Bannister contacts the FBI and tells them that he knows where they can find the judge's killer. He'll give them the information, for a price, of course - his freedom.

There is more to this than simply trading turning over a killer in order to obtain his own freedom. Bannister is also intent upon avenging his own wrongful conviction and making the FBI and the feds pay (so to speak) for the wrong that they had committed to him.

Well crafted and with a few good surprises and twists and turns, it has the trademark Grisham cleverness with Bannister's irreverence contrasting nicely with the seriousness and lack of ingenuity on the part of the feds. In fact, the law enforcement types who are present in this story are barely flushed out and play minimal roles. The story is all focused on Bannister and his scheme to gain his freedom as well as secure his future (the ill-gotten gains that had motivated the judges death eventually clarify what Bannisters real motivation has been). And Bannister flying back and forth from the Carribean reminds me of The Firm , where Mitch (and later his wife) travel to the Cayman Islands to copy the documents that they hope will save them from the crooks of Bendini, Lambert & Locke.

Still, the Racketeer lacks the tension and suspense of The Firm, and it also does not have the surprise ending of The Summons . Grisham's best novels have had complicated and interesting plots that involved rich characters who were stunning in their brazen disregard for the law and their ability to skim off vast sums of money in doing so - remember Max Pace in The King of Torts ? At this point is it unrealistic to expect each new Grisham novel to reach such a high bar?

Here, the story works well and it is an entertaining read. I suppose I consider it to be a 3 1/2 star overall, because it is enjoyable and well crafted. Not his best, just above average for John Grisham, but still better than most other writers these days.

One person found this helpful

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Alan G.

Typical Grisham fast moving, holds your interest from the start.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2022

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Grisham’s characters and stories are one step ahead of the reader and always keep you guessing what’s coming next and it isn’t always what you would expect.

2 people found this helpful

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Greg Metz

another good one

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 5, 2022

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I have enjoyed many books by Mr. Grisham, and this one is no exception. The typical Grisham twist on a story. Well done!

2 people found this helpful

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Victra

The Racketeer

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 6, 2022

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A bit confusing throughout, but still worth reading. Graham is a real pro at telling a interesting tale. Enjoy it!

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Top reviews from other countries

Mandrek Larl

A six star read with more twists and turns than Ariadne's Labyrinth ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 12, 2018

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I am not a dyed-in-the-wool everything-he-writes-is-five-stars John Grisham fan, so when I say this is a great book, I really mean this is a great book. And while the book might be an easy unputdownable read with a great story, it's the twists and turns which had me looking for the answer every which way that make this a stand-out book (mind you at times I wasn't that sure I knew what question I was trying to answer), and I really didn’t see the fine details of the denouement coming; and it's that attention to detail and those fine details that make this book so good.

So, while it's only the beginning of August, (and yes I know it’s a bit early for handing out gongs) but "The Racketeer" is odds-on-favourite for my book of the year (well at least so far).

PS I recommended "The Racketeer" to the Memsahib, and she's enjoying it, so that must be worth at least another star making this a six star read.

17 people found this helpful

A Scary Man

Implausible and no tension

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 2, 2018

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Nothing went wrong for the protagonist at any point. He was never close to failure or in any danger. Everything he attempted worked perfectly. A throwaway line at the end regarding how he couldn't believe his luck didn't even begin to cover it.

I felt for him at the beginning due to being wrongly imprisoned and cut off from his family, but as the book went on he became steadily less and less likeable and relatable. No particular reason was given for his quasi-omnipotence. If it was that easy to con your way out of prison and run around North/Central America giving the FBI the finger, why aren't more people doing it?

The book pretty much lost all momentum around the 30-40% mark and never really regained it. The gradual reveal sort of worked but there was only one point where I found myself genuinely unsure whether the protagonist was an anti-hero or a genuine villain. Ultimately I didn't care who killed the judge or whether Mal/Max's scheme worked. There wasn't a bad guy or antagonistic force to speak of.

I wasn't surprised by the author's note at the end where JG admitted he hadn't really done any research. It showed.

Also the tagline on the front makes little sense. The protagonist wasn't betrayed by the FBI as far as I could tell. And he didn't particularly seem motivated by revenge, but rather greed. The FBI got what they wanted in the end: the killer of the judge.

9 people found this helpful

Catman

Was this really written by John Grisham?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 4, 2019

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I had read a couple of Grisham's novels in the past before moving onto other Authors and their works. I have found them to be multi faceted with several converging stories or characters pulling the plot to the final ending, normally with a twist.
With this in mind i revisited his works and selected a few to download to my Kindle. The first couple were great riveting reads as i had remembered so in no particular order i moved onto this one.
The outline of a small time lawyer caught up in a large FBI investigation was a plausible one but i thought the sentence meted out a little harsh. The first part of the book outlined how he had lost everything and then how he settled into being the jail house lawyer for other inmates. There were very few clues as to the next part of the story before it kicked off with the murder of a Judge and his girlfriend. Another inmate was offered up as the culprit and the FBI took the bait. The middle part of the book then became a tedious boring monologue of the discovery and recruitment of another man for a documentary, with little explanation of where he was going with the story.
The main character then suddenly changes from a law abiding citizen wrongfully convicted of a breach of legal code into one hell bent on getting someone locked up in a Caribbean prison. Grisham freely admits that he didn't research the plot before committing it to the story sand it showed. It was more like a trashy airport paperback than that produced by a consummate storyteller. Save your money and skip this one.

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Very good.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

Only read one of Grishams before now ( the firm ). And while I enjoyed the firm immensely, I feel this one is better.
The firm slowly ( but only slightly),declined as it went on in my opinion.
Where as this one is solidly good throughout its entirety.
The storyline is excellent and the characters , while few , are interesting and well described.
I personally usually prefer fantasy and sword and sorcery type books.
But like to read a thriller by Grisham or King now and again to keep things fresh.
All round a solid book that I enjoyed and would happily recommend to a friend.

14 people found this helpful

Karl McCann

Far-fetched, maybe. Fast-paced, for sure

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 31, 2022

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Grisham readers won't be disappointed.

This novel moves quickly, a real page turner. Centred on a man with a plot to avenge an unjust sentence for a crime he didn't knowingly commit, there are a few twists in the tale on his way to vindication.

I think most readers will see the twists, or at least their outline before they come, but the story rivets nonetheless, and I had loose ends right to the end.

Not sure how likely the events would be - even Grisham comments on this in the author's notes - but I certainly enjoyed the book from cover to cover.

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