The Racketeer: Book Review

A federal judge, Mr. Raymond Fawcett, is murdered in his remote lakeside cabin. FBI is unable to trace the killer. And the pressure is mounting.

Enters Malcolm Bannister- Former attorney & now a prisoner. (As always) our innocent man is framed by the crooked (!) federal agents and wrongly imprisoned. His personal life is destroyed. Now, he wants the revenge.

Excitingly stale….isn’t it?

Bannister knows about the Fawcett’s killing. It is his chance. He will tell everything to the FBI. But not before they agree to his demands. The Racketeer is born. Or was he always there?

The Racketeer is supposed to be a legal thriller. The funniest part about it is that there’s nothing thrilling. You wait for the twists and turns which never arrive! The revelations are not exactly the revelations. I already knew all the secrets long before they were disclosed in the novel.

The plot is not tightly woven. I hardly got involved in it. The Racketeer lacks the punch. The research is not adequate. It is too straightforward.

To cut a long story short, it is too Un-Grisham. I have read many novels by John Grisham, and none of them failed to keep the interest intact. He always captivates us with his expertise and vast knowledge in the legal field. It is no fluke that most of his novels are adapted into films.

I do not mean that The Racketeer is boring or completely hopeless. It’s just that it is not what we expect from John Grisham.