The Racketeer by John Grisham
In his isolated lakeside cabin, his body is discovered. There are no indications of a fight or forced entrance. Judge Fawcett and his teenage secretary are the only two bodies. And one enormous, cutting-edge, high-security safe was opened and emptied.
Judge Fawcett’s murderer and motive are known to one man, a former lawyer. Yet Malcolm Bannister, who was that man, is now a resident of the federal prison camp close to Frostburg, Maryland. Despite being incarcerated, Malcolm has a trick up his sleeve. He possesses knowledge that the FBI would love to have. Malcolm would be delighted to inform them. But, everything has a cost, and the so-called “Racketeer” wasn’t just born yesterday.
The Racketeer by John Grisham
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In a little town in Virginia, Malcolm Bannister was a retail lawyer, paying the bills but never getting rich by handling wills, real estate transactions, and other regular legal work. He receives a call from a former law school classmate informing him that there may be a sizable commission available for settling the acquisition of a hunting lodge in rural Virginia for an unnamed client. Bills must be paid, and this price will go a long way toward that objective. Bannister doesn’t like the smell of the transaction, especially after a number of unusual twists and turns throughout the discussion. He is unexpectedly taken into custody during a civic event by costumed thugs, who then perp-walk him in front of pre-arranged state media.
He is charged with “money laundering” and indicted as part of a RICO case of a Washington influence-peddling businessman based on his holding money in escrow for a real estate transaction. He finds himself sentenced to ten years in jail at a “Club Fed” facility with other nonviolent “criminals” after being railroaded through the “court system” by an ambitious federal prosecutor and a vengeful judge.
After serving his term for five years, he has established himself as the prison’s librarian and “jailhouse lawyer,” filing motions on behalf of his fellow convicts and occasionally succeeding in having errors in their convictions overturned. He lost everything else: his wife left him and remarried; his law license was suspended; and there is little chance that he will be able to resume his work after being released.
A jailhouse attorney learns a lot from his “clients”: some are boastful, some are false, yet some divulge information that those holding them believe will help them escape. As a result of his relationships in prison, Bannister is able to identify the killer of a federal judge and use this information to have himself released from prison, placed under witness protection, and protected from further legal action. The FBI accepts Bannister’s offer after being persuaded by him and realizing that they have no other leads and are under pressure to solve the case.
