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    The Racketeer
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    The Racketeer
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    The Racketeer
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    The Racketeer

    Written by John Grisham

    Narrated by JD Jackson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 23, 2012
    ISBN9780307943248
    Unavailable
    The Racketeer

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    Reviews for The Racketeer

    3.5/5

    798 ratings84 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was enjoyable. It kept you guessing on what Malcolm was saying really was the truth. You don't really get to know the characters much and it did leave one of the characters kind of hanging. Other than that it was a page turner and fast paced. A typical Grisham book worth reading.
    • 3/5
      Grisham is always good and the twist is satisfactory, and not entirely predictable, although clues are fairly laid.I think Grisham's primary purpose was to describe the incredibly wasteful, and vengeful, prison system.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this one, from the beginning it was peeling an onion and as the layers disappear you slowly get closer to what really happened to the murdered judge & why. Pacing was good as was the introduction of new pieces to the puzzle in a manner that doesn't overwhelm the reader as there was quite a few twists and turns in there, particularly towards the end of the novel.A masterfully executed prison 'escape' & heist novel.
    • 5/5
      When a federal judge named Raymond Fawcett is found murdered in his isolated mountain cabin, things get intense. The most important question is why did a judge of very modest means need the large state-of-the-art safe that was found hidden behind a bookcase emptied of its contents?

      The judge's young secretary/lover who was found tortured and murdered beside him. The assumption is that the killers tortured her to force the judge to open the safe before killing the two of them.

      Since Fawcett is only the fifth active federal judge ever to have been murdered, the F.B.I. assembles a huge task force to track down the killer or killers, but the task force is virtually at a standstill. No one has any idea what might have been in the judge's safe and the careful killers left no trace of themselves behind. There are no witnesses, no clues of any kind, and no real suspects.

      Enter disbarred attorney Malcolm Bannister sitting in a federal prison camp near Frostburg, Maryland, with five years left on a ten-year senence. Bannister is actually an innocent victim who got caught up in a net thrown by an ambitious prosecuting attorney who abused the RICO statues to convict him. While in prison Bannister has been using his time wisely and now he has cooked up an intricate plan that could change his life forever. He knows what was in the safe and who killed Judge Fawcett to get it.

      Through the warden, Bannister contacts the F.B.I. and offers to make a trade: his freedom for the information he possesses. His offer sets off a great game of cat-and-mouse between Bannister and the authorities.

      There's a significant turn in the action that occurs about halfway through making you feel as if you might be reading a different book with the same characters. Grisham as usual pulls it all together in the end which always satisfies this reader. BUT i did not see the ending coming.
    • 3/5
      Upon reading the first chapter, I realised I read this book a few years ago. Skimmed through it to remind myself of the ending. I prefer this story to the last two Grishams read because there's a plot twist involving an ex-lawyer turned prisoner turned criminal informant; and Grisham seems to have toned down his use of cliche stereotype prejudicial language somewhat.
    • 3/5
      The Racketeer starts out a dull money laundering story with Malcolm Bannister being wrongfully convicted. He is a 43 year old black lawyer who recently became a partner in a firm. He takes the heat for the firm, his wife divorces him and later married someone else. He lost contact with his 8 year old son.He has monthly visits from his father who scolds him and is ashamed of him. His mother died from a drunk driver accident. He thinks that his real crime was "picking the wrong client". I never felt any sympathy for him through the whole story. He does not feel remorse and even though he provides free legal help for the inmates, I still did not connect with him.The judge who sent Malcolm Bannister is crooked. He is richer than his job as a federal judge allows. He only makes &174,000 a year and has a very secluded cabin. He gives lavish parties. But he has been supplement his supplement with gains that are not legal. The judge is shot and then burned along with a young Russian girl sitting beside him. Malcolm Bannister gets word to the FBI that he knows who the murderer. It takes some time to convince them. When they accept that he may be telling the truth, the FBI give him the sweetheart deal that he wants. That includes getting him into the Witness Protection Program. Then the book twists and my interest fell like a piece of lead. It is a little complicated after that but I am soon wishing the story was over. To me this book is not up to Grisham's previous book. It falls below the standard that he set.
    • 4/5
      Quick read, interesting but far fetched plot
    • 3/5
      I have always enjoyed John Grisham books, but his earliest books were in a different class than his later ones. This is an average story about a man who was wrongly imprisoned by the Feds, and figures a way to outsmart them and get himself out of jail. The rest of the story I thought dragged, but Grisham's writing made it interesting enough to keep turning the pages. Nothing great here.
    • 3/5
      Another great novel from Grisham. This was creative and very enjoyable. He was overdue for a good one and pulled through! Kept me guessing until close to the end
    • 3/5
      I have fond memories of several John Grisham novels. This isn't one of them.
    • 3/5
      Nice twist to look forward to.
    • 3/5
      I feel in love with the story immediately, but later on (maybe 3/4 in!) I start thinking this is becoming too good to be true. Also he trusted Vanessa very quickly. At the end it made sense, but before the end something seemed off.
    • 4/5
      Malcolm Bannister is an ex-lawyer from Virginia who was sentenced to ten years of prison on a racketeering charge. Having served five of his ten years, he has established some credit among his inmates as a jailhouse lawyer. When a federal judge and his secretary are murdered in a cabin in the woods, Malcolm Bannister sees his chance to be released from prison due to invoking rule 35, the commutation of a sentence when the prisoner has information that leads to an indictment in an ongoing case. Bannister professes to have exactly that: he claims to know the name of the murderer of the federal judge and his secretary. He manages to make a deal with the FBI and go into witness protection to start a new life. While this story is interesting in itself, it is at this point when the novel really starts to become suspenseful as Malcolm Bannister starts acting in a way no one would have foreseen. There are many turns in the story that keep the action alive and the reader guessing at what might happen next.The novel is written from a first-person perpsective and starts with the sentence "I am a lawyer, and I am in prison. It's a long story." And when that long story is told I as a reader started to feel that there is something fishy about this character. As I am always a little suspicious what a first-person narrator tells me I started suspecting foul play with Malcolm Bannister right from the start. I can safely say that I was not wrong, without giving away the surprise element of the story. John Grisham uses narrative perspective nicely to strengthen the impact of the story he is telling. All in all, a very gripping read. 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      In the spirit of The Firm with a fantastic scheme that has been contrived by Macolm Bannister / Max Reed. I got frustrated when the plot jarringly shifted to Nathan Cooley -- there was not the reminder reference of being someone who asked for his legal help while in federal prison. The scheme though is brilliant. Was Vanessa in on it? Seems like not, but had to have been.
    • 2/5
      The most disappointing Grisham I have read to date. It starts well enough with the usual detailed critique of part of the US justice system; this time it is federal courts and prisons and witness protection. The description of US marshals transporting prisoners around the nation is quite horrifying.
      But then, about halfway through it turns into a "caper" and, I feel, becomes loose and rather sloppy. I started out with some sympathy for the lead character, but this vanished once he left prison. Grisham himself admits to laziness in his acknowledgement a. He probably meant it in a different way, but I would use it as a negative. But nothing has/will stop it selling in container loads,
      I don't make a particular point of reading Grisham, but this popped up cheap on Amazon. It won't change my future choices one way or another.
    • 4/5
      This was a perfect book to read at the lake for the beginning of summer. It moved right along, had interesting characters and some plot twists that I didn't expect.
    • 3/5
      Liked it, just dragged at times.
    • 2/5
      Somehow I expected more when I started reading this novel...I don't know what the more would be but as it continued I just wanted to finish reading - not because it was thrilling, not because it was riveting, merely so I could move on and read another novel by a different author.
    • 3/5
      Very much a Grisham plot - put your main character in a seemingly impossible situation and watch how he gets out. Readable but bland.
    • 2/5
      I was disappointed. While fully expecting a fast paced plot. revolving around a small time lawyer, this was just too improbable to get into. I was actually looking forward to it being over.
    • 4/5
      This Grisham book is a little different from his standard fare because it is written from the perspective of a rogue lawyer who is out to fleece the government. Said lawyer does his best to convince us that he was innocent of the charge that landed him in federal prison for racketeering. Nonetheless, he's certainly not above bending the law for his own uses in order to get out early and end up a very wealthy man. The plot has some interesting twists and turns in it and is a step above recent Grisham fare.
    • 4/5
      Nice quick read, fast paced shenanigans. Love John's novels!~!!
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars

      Malcolm is very smart. I really liked how he worked everything out. I did figure a lot of what was happening out ahead of time and feel that some of the people he tricked should have been a little quicker on the uptake. Definitely entertaining.
    • 2/5
      Somehow I expected more when I started reading this novel...I don't know what the more would be but as it continued I just wanted to finish reading - not because it was thrilling, not because it was riveting, merely so I could move on and read another novel by a different author.
    • 3/5
      I think it is a quite similar to firm and i can see a pattern emerging.Firm is quite good this on the other hand has not that gripping.
    • 5/5
      Amazing story! Keeps you guessing from beginning to end.
    • 3/5
      "One of the few virtues of prison life is the gradual acquisition of patience. Nothing moves at a reasonable pace, and you learn to ignore clocks."Malcolm Bannister has served 5 years in prison for a crime he got sucked into, and is due to serve another 5. When a federal judge is brutally murdered, and Malcolm knows who did it, he has to work out a way to use that information to his advantage, while staying safe. And a way to exact a little justice of his own.For the first half of this, I was completely onboard. So far, so Grisham, but very readable, good plot build-up, some nifty legal dealings, a bit of adventure, bad guys appropriately irritated. Then Grisham seemingly goes off-piste for most of the rest of the book, only revealing in the last 10 pages or so how the second half of the book ties back to the first half. Which drove me crazy. I nearly abandoned the book multiple times and it was only encouragement from The Musician that kept me going.Bannister is a likeable enough character in the standard Grisham mold, but Grisham does much better protagonists. The agents are rendered well enough but nothing memorable. Quinn and Nate are interesting, as is Vanessa, but it feels like Grisham didn't really want to bother developing any characters other than Bannister because of the backwards plot.It's not up there with The Street Lawyer or The Last Juror.
    • 4/5
      Very entertaining read.
    • 4/5
      The Racketerr reminds me a little bit of one of his old ones The Partner which is one of my favorite. keeps you guessing through the book. I recommend to all the John Grisham fan.
    • 4/5
      Small town lawyer Malcom Bannister gets caught up in a money laundering scheme perpetrated by one of his clients, and was convicted despite having no knowledge of what was going on. His rather implausible 10 year sentence lands him in a Federal minimum security "country club" prison and the novel starts 5 years into the sentence. On the outside, a federal judge is murdered. Obsessively researching the case online, Malcom asks the warden to summon the FBI...he knows who did it, and wants to bargain for his release. What follows reminds me of the movie "Wild Things", replacing the sexy girls with convicts. It's a fun, quick read, but not a particularly smart one. The idea, for instance, that the district attorney would double-down on a deal when the first one doesn't pan out for them seems particularly far-fetched.