The Brethren
eBook
- 2000
Random House, Inc.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, 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.
And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam—while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt. A bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grips, and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings. For the Brethren, the timing couldn’t be better. Because they’ve just found the perfect victim.
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from John Grisham's The Litigators.
Baker & Taylor
In a maximum security federal prison, three former judges who call themselves "the brethren" meet daily in the law library to run a rougher form of justice inside their new community, and make a little money, but when one of their scams derails, they are forced to confront the world of their own creation. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.
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Add a CommentHmm - meddling by powerful interests in a presidential election against the backdrop of increasing Chinese power and a potential Russian dictatorship (not to mention the usual charming smaller tales of corruption in the judiciary)... Perhaps it is time to give this older Grisham another read. :)
Not one of my favorite Grisham books but still interesting enough. Don't expect and action-packed thriller a la The Firm.
A good read but frustrating for non Americans to understand the culture and the motivation of these white collar criminals and the system of punishment. As well, being gay is not a scandal in this province so the concept of blackmailing someone for sexual orientation is not really a risk today.
This book is a strange one with no good guys just different degrees of bad guys. Three incarcerated judges running a mail scam and extorting money from rich closeted gays accidentally net a candidate for president. He's not just any candidate but one hand-picked by the director of the CIA and manipulated on a grand scale into winning first the nomination and then the election. I didn't like this book at first because there's nobody to pull for but I got sucked in and ended up liking it quite a bit.
A terrific plot. Amasing ending.
A realistic novel.