The Rooster Bar

by John Grisham
352 pgs

Mark, Todd, and Zola are three law students about to start their final semester at Foggy Bottom Law School in Washington D.C., and while for many in their position, it's an exciting time, for them, there's little to look forward to. Combined, they owe over $600,000 in student loans, and because Foggy Bottom is a low-level school, the only have about a 50% chance of passing the bar exam after graduation, and little-to-no chance to find jobs with decent law firms even if they did.

They are victims of a real-life scam Grisham shines a light on in The Rooster Bar, in which for-profit law schools recruit mediocre students, who have no business being in an law school, and then encourage them to rack up exorbitant student loans from the federal government to pay for it, with the assurance that they'll have no problem getting on with a firm when they graduate, who will help them wipe out their debt. The students then graduate and find out those promises were empty, and have a lifetime of insurmountable debt ahead of them. The only people making any money are the owners of the schools.

After one of their classmates decides to take his own life because of the circumstances he now finds himself in, the three classmates come up with a scam of their own. They decide school is a waste of money and time and since lawyers are never asked to prove they've earned their J.D. and passed the bar, why not just start acting like lawyers? Mark and Todd start hanging out around courthouses, hustling clients there with DUI and other traffic charges and taking in cash retainers. Zola starts chasing ambulances in hospital waiting rooms. They change their names and start a bogus firm, and they live and work out of an apartment above their favorite bar, The Rooster Bar.

The appeal of Grisham's story is finding out how far they can take their scheme before their house of cards comes crashing down, along with the lengths they're willing to go to to keep it up. But I found myself wishing for characters I could root for. Zola is the most sympathetic of the three, but eventually I was ready for all three of them to get caught.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Camino Island

by John Grisham
290 pgs

Camino Island is another departure for Grisham from his typical legal thriller. Years ago, it was his departure from that genre to write books like A Painted House, Bleachers, and Skipping Christmas that ended my love affair with his writing and led to our trial separation, which lasted for many years. This time, fortunately, his departure was entertaining enough to keep our relationship going.

The book begins with a heist. Five original manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books, including The Great Gatsby, are stolen from the Princeton University Library. Authorities catch two of the five men responsible for the theft, but never recover any of the priceless manuscripts. As the case goes cold, the story transitions to Mercer Mann, a young novelist who achieved critical acclaim for her first novel, but who is currently struggling to come up with an idea for her next book.

Mercer is contacted by a company trying to locate the lost manuscripts and recruited into their elaborate scheme to get them back to Princeton. They believe the manuscripts are located on Camino Island, off the coast of Florida, and are now among the possessions of Bruce Cable, the owner of one of the most successful independent bookstores in the country. They want Mercer to relocate to Camino Island, where she spent much of her childhood, insert herself into the literary scene there, become friends with Cable, and somehow verify whether he indeed has the manuscripts.

The book isn’t in the same league as A Time to Kill, The Firm, or The Chamber, but it’s a fun and entertaining story that kept me interested throughout. A big part of the book’s appeal for me was Cable’s description of his vast collection of signed first editions. As a collector myself, I probably enjoyed those parts of the book more than the suspense and intrigue. 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Whistler

by John Grisham
374 pgs

I used to be a religious reader of John Grisham’s books. I used to buy them the day they were published and begin reading them immediately. Now, not so much. Before reading The Whistler, the last of his books I read was The Confession, and that was six years ago. It was when he started writing more non-legal thrillers that I started losing interest in his books, and eventually, even those began to lose some of their appeal to me. But because of books like A Time to Kill, The Firm, and The Chamber, I still pick his books up when they come out and at least read the dust jacket flaps to see what they’re about. With The Whistler, doing so paid off.

The story centers around Lacy Stoltz, an investigator for the Florida Board of Jucidicial Conduct. Basically, she investigates judges suspected of corruption. As the book begins, Lacy and her partner, Hugo Hatch, are contacted by a man claiming to have information about Claudia McDover, information that if true, would make her the most corrupt judge in the history of America.

The man is an ex-con who lives on his boat and is an intermediary to “the Whistler,” an anonymous whistle-blower close to the Judge who is aware of her corruption.

Lacy and Hugo begin investigating Judge McDover, but things quickly become deadly when the car they’re driving is intentionally hit head-on by a car that swerves into their lane. Hugo is killed and Lacy seriously is seriously injured. Lacy becomes even more determined after the accident to expose the judge and get justice for Hugo’s death and her investigation reveals the existence of a group of mobsters known as the “Coast Mafia.” That group has ingrained itself into the Tappacola indian tribe and has been skimming millions of dollars from the tribe’s casinos for years, and Judge McDover has been using her position on the bench to help them.

The Whistler reminded me of why I used to be such a big fan of Grisham’s books. Lacy is someone you quickly get behind and root for, there’s a clear sense of trying to right an injustice, and the story is hard to put down at times. It’ll keep me picking up his books for a while, and reading the flaps. Hopefully there will be more like it to come.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆  

The Confession

The Confession by John Grisham

When my family and I take a road trip, I like to listen to a book on my iPod while driving. I usually finish one complete book during the drive which equates to about 1,000 miles or roughly 16 hours round trip. This last one to San Antonio and the Gulf Coast was a three-book trip which equaled about 3,350 miles or about 58 hours round trip. The first of the three was The Confession.

Donte Drumm is about to die. He's days away from being put to death by the state of Texas for a crime he insists he didn't commit. While he's sitting on death row awaiting the decisions on his final appeals and motions, another man walks into a Lutheran minister's office and confesses to having committed that crime.

Travis Boyette was recently released from a Kansas prison after having completed his sentence for multiple sex crimes. He claims to have an inoperable brain tumor that's killing him and says he wants to make restitution for all his past mistakes by stopping the execution of an innocent man.

The Confession is another step back in the right direction for Grisham. It reminded me a lot of The Chamber which I thoroughly enjoyed reading back when it was written. The political ideology in this one is a little heavy-handed at times, (Grisham makes his view on capital punishment quite clear in this one) but
the story was compelling and enjoyable to read, exactly what I'm hoping for when I read one of his books.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Associate

The Associate by John Grisham

It's been years since I read a book by Grisham. I used to really enjoy them and then he lost his way. He started writing books like A Painted House,  Bleachers, and one about pizza. So I stopped. I bought The Associate because I was out of town, I had finished the book I brought, and it was cheap. So I bought it and tried him again. Fortunately The Associate  represents a return to the Grisham that I liked.

It's about Kyle McAvoy, a Yale law student who is about to graduate and  plans to use his J.D. for good for a few years, representing the homeless and others who normally couldn't afford a lawyer. But others have different plans for Kyle. A major lawsuit is about to be filed between two companies vying for a major government defense contract and someone wants Kyle to get a job with the law firm representing one of those companies so that he can steal files associated with the lawsuit. You see, Kyle has a skeleton in his closet - an incident that occurred years ago at a frat party, which is being used to blackmail Kyle into getting the job and finding a way to get access to the files.

The story is quite reminiscent of The Firm which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's classic Grisham style and pace. For me, Kyle wasn't a likable character. I didn't really care how things turned out for him. I understand Shia LaBeouf will be playing him in the movie being developed which works for me, since he's an actor that I don't really care for as well.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆