John Grisham’s novel The Racketeer held my interest for about the first third of the book and not
for a whole lot after that. It is the story of Malcolm Bannister, a former
lawyer who unknowingly got caught up helping the mob launder money. He is now
serving what he thinks is a very excessive sentence at a minimum security
prison. Bannister has a way out, though. He informs the warden that he knows
who killed a federal judge named Raymond Fawcett. This is information the FBI
is extremely interested in, and they make a deal with Bannister to free him
from prison and put him into witness protection in exchange for the name of the
killer.
As I said, it’s an interesting first 100 pages or so but The Racketeer soon becomes tedious
because Grisham makes Bannister perhaps the smartest person on the planet. He’s
thought through everything as he tricks the FBI again and again. I never got
the feeling that anything would go wrong with Bannister’s plan, and this led to
a lack of tension throughout the last two thirds of the book. In addition, a lot of the book seems devoted
to trashing the U.S. justice and prison systems, the FBI and various other
parts of the government. Whether readers agree or disagree with Bannister’s/Grisham’s
views, portraying Bannister’s foes as such out-and-out fools just doesn’t make
for interesting reading. He could have at least shown the feds as bumbling
idiots for comic effect, but he doesn’t take this route either. When we do get
scenes with the FBI characters, their dialogue is wooden and dull. Even though I was initially sympathetic to his
plight, I eventually found myself rooting against Bannister by the end of the
book, hoping he would get caught and sent back to serve out the rest of his
prison sentence and then some.
This is the first book I’ve read by Grisham and I’m hoping
it’s one of his weaker efforts. I do have to admit that despite all its flaws,
I did at least want to get to the end to understand all of Bannister’s master
plan. I guess that shows that The
Racketeer has something going for it.
I have read almost all of the Grisham books.I ordered this one early and saved it for treat. I was terribly disappoint. Poor story line, disappointing writing. I thought that this book was so bad that someone else had written it. It was not only a waste of time and money, it tarnished my opinion of his storytelling excellence.
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