I have been reading John Grisham since John Grisham has been writing books.  They are typically fast-paced, heart-thumping stories that genuinely propel the reader through an adventure of legal shenanigans.  I read them religiously, yet somehow, I managed to skip this one.  To be fair, it was published in the year 2000, which was my junior year of college AND the year a terrible fire tore apart my parent’s hometown.  I was pretty busy.  Fast forward twenty-four years, and one of my reading challenges has a prompt that has me looking for a book published in the year 2000.  Since I failed to read this one back then and it was the number one bestselling novel of the year, I decided to give it a read.

            Remember how I previously mentioned that Grisham wrote heart-thumping legal thrillers?  This one is not that.  It’s sort of a legal thriller, more of a political thriller, but it doesn’t contain the same heart-thumping elements that made me fall in love with Grisham’s books.  Maybe it’s me…and the thousands of books I have read over the last twenty-four years have raised my expectations.  Maybe I have this romantic notion of how good Grisham’s books are based entirely on the early books I read when I wasn’t reading all the much to begin with (unless it was a textbook, I read many of those).  Whatever the reason, this one didn’t live up to my expectations of a John Grisham book. It was far slower paced than I’m used to from his books, and the primary “conflict” involved a subject that I feel, personally, shouldn’t have even been a thing. 

            I’ll probably continue to believe that Grisham’s books are all fast-paced thrillers, simply because I refuse to let one book ruin my rose-colored view of an author I have always considered one of my favorites.  However, this book is definitely not going on the list of favorites that’s he’s written. 

It was very fun and exciting to read. Cheers to the Brethren!!!

Not a single likeable character in the entire book. Unique but a pretty messed up plot. If it's your first Grisham choose another starting place.

sou fã deste autor e comecei este livro com as expectativas altas. Fiquei desiludida. A história podia ter tudo para nos prender mas tal não acontece. As personagens são demasiado superficiais e algumas partes parecem forçadas. Calculo que todos temos direito a um dia mau e os escritores também tem direito a um mau livro...

Definitely not my favourite Grisham book but an entertaining enough read.

Idk what was this. It had no plot twist and the ending was kinda disappointing.