Book club: The Racketeer

Well what do you think of The Racketeer, Starts at Sixty Book Clubbers?  I’ve read a few John Grisham novels, but I found this one quite challenging in many ways.

• First challenge: where is the “knight in shining armour” tilting at Windmills?
• Second challenge: where is the hapless victim who believes the world is good and he only needs to find the “right” person and all will be solved?
• Third challenge: where is the great wrong which needs to be righted before the world can peacefully revolve happily on its axis once again.

All we have is a piece of Federal Law in the United States of America called Rule 35 as the catalyst for the story.  For anyone who has not read the book, Rule 35 allows for the reduction of a sentence if a defendant provides “substantial assistance in investigating or prosecuting another person.”

When you start reading The Racketeer you expect it will follow the time honoured methodology; disbarred lawyer, Malcolm Bannister, wrongfully incarcerated, assists the FBI solve a heinous crime, in this instance the murder if a Federal judge and his secretary.  By these actions Malcolm assists himself out of prison, to live happily ever after with maybe a few plot shifts on the way.

• Challenge Four: our hero (?) Malcolm Bannister is just so ugly, not in the physical sense, but in his character.  What he does to Nathan Cooley is unforgivable!
• Challenge Five: do I let my moral outrage close the book? NO WAY! I keep reading because this is a great book, which kept my attention from start to finish.

Over to you Starts at Sixty Book Clubbers:

1. What do you think of The Racketeer?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. Do you agree with me that Malcolm Bannister is an ugly character?
4. If you agree why?
5. If you disagree why?
6. What do you think of profiting from crime?
7. What do you think about the characterization of the FBI, AG and US Marshalls?
8. Did reading it make you want to read another novel by John Grisham?
9. Any John Grisham novels you would like to recommend?

Please join the discussion and don’t forget, discussion of the second November book club choice, Star Craving Mad starts on Wednesday 27 November, lead by our lovely Vivienne.

Available for $31.95 via Booktopia.

The Racketeer 

By John Grisham

Published by Doubleday