The Judge's List: A Novel

John Grisham is pretty much the owner of his own niche of books: the legal thriller. There are many other authors who write this type of book, but it is Grisham who stands at the very top. Almost forty legal thriller novels, over 300 million books in print, etc. From the first one published in 1989, his legal thrillers have gone number one consistently. He's so good as an author, at plotting, at character building, at dialogue, at velocity, etc., he's the master. He most often will take a specific subject, in this latest outing, serial killers who are also sitting judges, research the subject thoroughly, and weave the facts and context and motivations into a story which draws us deeper and deeper with each paragraph. This latest, "The Judge's List," is, in my opinion, one of his best. To be writing at his best after 40 years on the job says a lot about how truly skilled he is. Grisham gives us Lacy Stoltz, an experienced investigator at the Board of Judicial Conduct in Florida, a backwater, sleepy agency which investigates complaints against judges. She gets a cold call from Jeri Crosby, whose father was killed 20 years ago. She has spent those 20 years tracking down her father's killer, and has discovered that the killer has killed at least ten other victims, using the exact same technique: a blunt instrument to the head, and a nylon rope tied around the neck with a unique knot at the end. Crosby believes the killer is a sitting judge; she files a complaint against the judge with Lacy, who is obligated by law to investigate all complaints. Thus, Grisham sets up an intriguing story—Lacy involves the various agencies and instruments of state, local and federal government to investigate and ultimately reveal the judge's crimes. How they unite and work together, how they track the judge, how they almost get killed by the judge, and how they ultimately solve the case, is Grisham at his best. When Grisham has wandered into fields outside the legal thriller neighborhood, such as his sports books and his young adult books, I felt that he was good, but not great. With every one of his legal thrillers, I always felt like I was reading the master. And so it is with "The Judge's List," Grisham at his best, giving us exactly what we want in a legal thriller. Can't wait for his next one.

Wow, this was very good. I kept coming back to it when I should have been doing other things, like sleeping. I truly hope to see more novels with the investigations of Lacy and gang, and her irritating but sometimes hilarious brother Gunther.

Lacy Stoltz investigates corrupt judges for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She does not investigate murders. Or so she tries explaining to Jeri Crosby, who's made more progress sorting out who killed her father and others than all of the law enforcement offices involved in them, across several states. But Jeri will not be deterred. Justice must be served and she believes Lacy is the one person who can accomplish that. John Grisham gives us driven characters and a genius, ruthless killer. Will he ever be caught? I'm a generally slow reader, but couldn't put this down. It's fast and challenging and a great book. There's one teensy flaw (unless this particular reader is flawed herself and missed something: a character at one point says he's not interesting in reading about serial killers when several chapters earlier had been sharing what he was learning about them through the books he'd been reading. Perhaps I confused or conflated two characters, but it was enough for me to stop and flip back to see what I'd missed. No fun in a page-turner. But it's Grisham. So it was probably my error. I don't read many serial killer thrillers, but this one was fascinating, perhaps because it came from a non-cop, non-FBI character's point of view. And it's Grisham.

I love this book. It's was a great read. Lacy and Jerry were great characters and story keeps you wanting more.

I just can't give it 5 stars. I've read several of his books (A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Chamber, The Rainmaker) and now this one. I enjoy his books and I guess if there was a way to give a 4.5 rating I probably would. One of the main reasons I've never given a 5 star rating is because a common pattern I see is that there's a lot of "fluff" in the book. A chapter or so is devoted to Bannick escorting the older woman for an evening at the elitist country club. I understand the point Grisham was trying to emphasize in that the judge is showing his rather affectionate and social personality. I know it's common for serial killers to have two completely different personalities, Bundy and Gacy come first to mind. However, I think too many pages in the book was devoted to this aspect and unnecessary for the main plot of the book. Another aspect of the book I thought was rather bizarre was how Jeri Crosby was extremely cautious in how she handled every aspect of her life. She was always paranoid and in fear that she was being followed. If she was that paranoid and wanted Bannick caught then it made no sense why she sent the letters/poems to Bannick. Again, I understand what Grisham was trying to do and how it made for a nice twist in the book. However, I wouldn't think in a normal circumstance if someone is wanting revenge or justice they would give the supposed killer, and one as intelligent as Bannick, any sort of a hint they were being followed. Just parts of the story didn't make sense and Grisham made it too simple and convenient to tie the twisting plot together. I really enjoy Grisham novels and there have been a lot of nights I've stayed up well past my usual bedtime reading the book because it was interesting. In that regard, Grisham has achieved the objective of capturing the reader. I've read two of Grisham books this month and they're very good, just areas that leave me wanting more. All that being said, I'll now have to read The Whistler and I probably should have read it first, but the reviews weren't as good as this one.

Great book

JUDGE’S LIST by John Grisham Well, I was so happy to go back to one of the loves of my literary like, John Grisham, and see that he’s back in shape. We parted a while ago when I read some of his work that was not worthy of Grisham. But I am glad we are back together. .Judge’s List is part of the Lacy Stolz series. Stolz works as an investigator for the Florida Board of Judicial Conduct. A strong woman in her thirties, she is faced with unexpected complications that seem to belong more to the FBI than to the BJC. The woman who insists on seeing her, Jeri, is convinced that a respected judge is also a serial killer, and that one of his victims was her own father. For twenty years, Jeri built an enormous dossier on that judge, stalked him and, in the process, created several identities with different names, and untraceable phone numbers. What’s fascinating in this thriller comes from Grisham’s parallel between two obsessive and organized minds, Jeri’s and the judge/serial killer’s. One good and one evil, they use similar methods to get to their end, one looking for justice, the other looking for the next revenge murder. While working as a novel with psychological insights and complex analysis, it can be read also as a fable representing the human mind and its duality and inner fight between negative and positive forces. There is a paragraph toward the end where Jeri admits that part of her got strangely attached to the man who killed her father. Her decades-long investigation has made him an intimate part of her life. And, discovering the magnitude of her work, the killer himself thinks of this enemy, as brilliant as he is, with reverence. If I only gave three stars to the novel, it’s not because of the journalistic, minimalist prose characteristic of this author. Simplicity is not that simple. It’s because I compare Grisham to Grisham –a graving on a curve of sorts. I believe he has done better in the past. I am about to read one of his old books, and should I change my mind after that, I will add a star here. The other reason is the cute, sentimental ending. This ain’t a cute story and, should the reader need a release from this dark tale, Grisham could have placed it in an epilogue and not as the last chapter. It's definitely worth a read. Despite his nearly telegraphic style, or because of it and its efficiency, Grisham manages to go to the depths and conflicts of our human condition. 6.5.23

Quite the mischievous judge. As usual in his novels Grisham skillfully weaves through justice and crime with a thin needle. Great read.

Fantastic read

Mi è piaciuto tutto. Credibile, misurato, con la giusta dose di suspense. Anche il finale mi ha convinto. Lo consiglio!

buen "plot"

Unlike his other books this book was fast paced and kept us engaged from the beginning. Certainly loved the book.

I couldn’t stop reading