2008 Book 54: The Brethren

Book #:	54
Book Title:	The Brethren
Author:	John Grisham
Publisher:	Dell Publishing
Pub. Date:	2000
Pages:	440
Started:	June 6, 2008
Finished:	June 8, 2008
Time to Read:	3 Days
Back Cover / Inside Flap:	"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. And 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..."
Stars:	***
Review:	This is another Grisham novel that asks the reader to try to sympathize with the bad guys...but it's a lot harder to do in this novel than in "The Partner." In this novel, the crimes committed are a lot less innocuous that the theft of money...and the techniques used are just simply telling of the black hearts some people have. But yet... I find myself drawn into the story. Rooting, alternately, for the felons versus the victims. But when a victim emerges that is so much stronger, and yet so much weaker, than any other...the story goes into frantic mode and the reader suddenly can't wait to see how it all will end. Or perhaps, what will end. Good read!

If you have read or are planning to read this book, please make sure to stop back by and leave me a comment to let me know your own thoughts!

From my library to yours,

Tiffany