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The Racketeer

A Novel

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The Racketeer is guilty of only one thing: keeping us engaged until the very last page.”—USA Today In the history of the United States, only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.
His body is found in his remote lakeside cabin. There is no sign of forced entry or struggle. Just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.
One man, a former attorney, knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and why. But that man, Malcolm Bannister, is currently residing in the Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland. Though serving time, Malcolm has an ace up his sleeve. He has information the FBI would love to know. Malcolm would love to tell them. But everything has a price—and the man known as the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday.
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    The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.

    Summary

    This ebook features mark-up that supports accessibility and enables compatibility with assistive technology. It has been designed to allow display properties to be modified by the reader. The file includes a table of contents, a defined reading order, and ARIA roles to identify key sections and improve the reading experience. Headings allow readers to navigate the ebook quickly by level. Colors meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA contrast standards. There are no hazards.

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    • Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and font size, spaces between paragraphs, sentences, words, and letters, as well as color of background and text).

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    • Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 29, 2012
      Bestseller Grisham (The Litigators) is back in top form with this twisty, precisely plotted legal thriller that eschews the civics lessons of some of his more recent work. The masterful opening introduces disgraced Virginia lawyer Malcolm Bannister, who has served half of a 10-year prison sentence for money laundering after getting caught up in a federal net aimed at a sleazy influence peddler. Bannisterâs conviction has, naturally, destroyed his life, but he thinks he can use the murder of federal judge Raymond Fawcett to his advantage. Fawcett, who presided over a landmark mining rights case, and his attractive secretary, with whom he was having an affair, were both found shot in the head in his cabin in southwest Virginia. Near the bodies was an empty open safe. When the high-profile investigation stalls, Bannister tells the feds that he can identify the killer for them in exchange for a release from jail and the means to start a new life. The surprises all work, and the action builds to a satisfying resolution. Agent: David Gernert, the Gernert Company.

    • Kirkus

      December 15, 2012
      Evenly paced, smart legal thriller--trademark Grisham (The Litigators, 2011, etc.), in other words. "Secrets are extremely hard to keep in prison, especially when outsiders appear and start asking questions." So writes Grisham in the voice of one Malcolm Bannister, a one-time attorney who has gotten himself in trouble and is now "halfway through a ten-year sentence handed down by a weak and sanctimonious federal judge in Washington, D.C." Grisham locates his story on the familiar ground of the racial divide: Bannister, 43 years old, is black, the only black ex-attorney at the Maryland prison camp to which he has been committed--not a bad place, a "resort" in fact as compared to most pens. And, of course, he's innocent, or so he protests. Bannister also has come by some inside knowledge of events surrounding the death of another federal judge, which links to witness protection, drugs, Jamaicans and some heavy bad guys--and therein lies Grisham's longish, complex tale of cat and mouse. Every character in the book is believable, and though some of the plot turns seem just a touch improbable, the reader never quite knows whether things are going to work out for Bannister before the heaviest of the heavies quiets him down for good. "I have a plan," Bannister says, "but so much of it is beyond my control." That's not so of Grisham's plot, which is carefully mapped out without seeming pat, leading to a most satisfying conclusion. In fact, there are plenty of surprises along the way. As ever, a solid, unflashy performance by Grisham.

      COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2012

      Evidently, only four active federal judges have been murdered in this country; Grisham imagines a fifth victim, Judge Raymond Fogletree, found dead with his secretary in a lakeside cabin. As the narrator says, "I did not know Judge Fogletree, but I know who killed him, and why. I am a lawyer, and I am in prison. It's a long story."

      Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:6.3
  • Lexile® Measure:900
  • Interest Level:9-12(UG)
  • Text Difficulty:4-5

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