Author: John Grisham
Narrator (from Libro.fm): Michael Beck
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Legal thriller
Setting: Mostly Florida, United States
First published February 1, 2000
Book description: They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. The other, for skimming bingo profits. The third for a career-ending drunken joyride.
Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong. Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich—very fast.
Review:
A legal thriller, a quick and easy-to-get-through read. We follow the Brethren - a group of 3 judges who ended up in prison for different reasons. They saw everything they had crumble when the law caught up with them now they are three bitter middle-aged men who still have dreams of profit and luxury for when they are set free.
The Brethren handle appeals for other convicts; hold a weekly 'prison court' to iron out disputes among prisoners. The very idea of holding free legal counsel for the prisoners might as well be a peace treaty. They definitely cannot be held in high esteem, they after all spent most of their lives putting people behind bars. They do need to find a way to get in the rest of the prisoner's good side.
Trumble Federal Prison near Jacksonville, Florida is a minimum security facility that hardly seems like a penitentiary: it has no fences, decent food, recreational facilities, and - as it turns out - opportunities for serious mischief. The guards there are not total assholes, they have in their facilities mostly people who have been accused of very petty things.
During their stay at the prison, they decide to find a way to continue making a profit- by scamming people. The gist of the scam involves 'catfishing' closeted homosexual men who can't risk being outed. To perpetuate the hoax, the judges - using the name Ricky - place an ad in an alternative lifestyle magazine. As soon as replies start coming in they start their game. They are pretending to be a young, handsome man who hit a rough patch and ended up in prison. They have a nice tear-jerker story of misfortune. The men who reach back normally are older gentlemen, married or at least settled in life in a good spot.
The line, and sinker:
Ricky says that he's in a rehab facility, feels very lonely, and would like to correspond with a mature man. In the accompanying photo, Ricky seems to be a handsome young guy with an irresistible crooked smile.
When men answer Ricky's ad, the judges check them out. If the responder has money and a family, Ricky (really Judge Yarber or Judge Beech) writes back. He inveigles the victim into an epistolary love affair, asks for cash for incidentals, and arranges to meet when he gets out of rehab.
The best is the back and forth between the men and "Ricky" for a little bit, making sure to let the other portray a nice romance. In order to accomplish this, their lawyer is set in charge of helping the judges to send and receive the letter and more importantly the money they receive from the idiots who fell for the scam. Trevor ( the lawyer) is trying to scam the scammers at the same time. Eventually, the other shoe drops, and the judges let the men know they have been scammed and make outrageous demands of money. But they make sure it fits the pockets of the man. If they refuse, their wife or someone in their family will receive an anonymous letter revealing their inclinations.
At the same time, the presidential campaign is taking place. There is a very important player trying to get their hands on picking the top candidate and assuring that their choice is the winner. The powers decide to support Congressman Aaron Lake, a widower whose campaign is pretty small and insignificant at the start of the race. Overnight Lake's campaign receives hundreds of millions in funding. He starts to drive hard and get tons of publicity- in order to make his stands of antiterrorism more appealing the media starts to report more and more news about bombs and terrorist attacks. Quiet convenient timing for Lake.
You know where this is going right? The two storylines collide. Lake is in the closet and has fallen for the scam like the other dupes the judges are working on. Now the powers (CIA) need to protect the image of their chosen candidate and start to counter the threat, but the judges proved to be worthy adversaries.
It is a book that has not aged well, it comes off as homophobic, or at least it normalizes the discrimination, especially in circles where men need to appear 'manly', the message here is that in order for a man to be worthy of rule and power they need to fir the classic male checklist- married to a nice conservative woman.
I was a bit disappointed by the ending, it felt like meh. As part of my challenge to read all of Grisham's works, well this was a good pick. It's a quick read and it goes by quickly- but the characters did not grow on me at all. So I will say they are all unlikeable and I wouldn't have minded if they all kind of died or had tragic endings at least.
This book will not make it to my top 5 Grisham's books but it was an ok read.
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