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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
¡Más John Grisham [JG]! Es lo que tienen los veranos. Lo cierto es que los libros de JG son difíciles de comentar. Suponen una lectura ligera, con tramas aceptablemente interesantes, con un gran desarrollo de la acción, y ya está. Se los lee uno estupendamente, aprende cosillas, y pasa un buen rato. Poco más hay que decir. ¡Ah, sí, el argumento! Pues ahí lo tienen, en la misma portada. Tres jueces se dedican a extorsionar a ciudadanos inocentes desde una prisión federal de baja seguridad. Pero uno de los ciudadanos que cae en sus redes digamos que tiene amigos que no permitirán esta extorsión. Si quieren más información, les remito a anteriores comentarios sobre libros de JG. Todos se parecen... Como siempre, el final es en tonos rosa pastel y naranja atardecer. Mi nota: Entretenido.
Good story of extortioners who accidentally hit the mother load. Wasn't as suspenseful or action packed as some of his other works but still a great story of government behind the scenes.
Grisham has to be one of the most cynical authors writing legal fiction today. Everyone is corrupt, thinking only of himself, and money rules.
The "Brethren" are three ex-judges who have been incarcerated in a minimum security federal prison for a variety of avaricious crimes. While in prison, they procure the services of Trevor, a greedy little lawyer who agrees to act as the go-between in a dirty scheme to extort money from gay men who are fearful of being outed. Trevor bribes the prison guards to look the other way while he "smuggles" in forbidden documents and deposits their ill-begotten proceeds in an off-shore bank account. It's all very sordid.
A subplot, that becomes mixed with the affairs of the Brethren concerns Teddy Maynard, director of the CIA, who, appalled by the fall of communism and the concomitant reduction in military spending, conspires to find a candidate of suitable malleability, whom he can groom to be the next president. Aaron Lake, handsome, widowed, a light drinker, with no political baggage, seems the perfect choice. Just to be on the safe side, though, Maynard has Lake followed everywhere. By instigating terrorist actions at the appropriate time, and collecting huge amounts of money from weapons manufacturers who stand to reap huge profits from Lake's sole campaign promise: to double the defense budget; Maynard assures that Lake soon has a commanding lead over the vice-president, the previous front runner. Maynard will stop at nothing, including orchestrating a murder, to realize his dream of controlling the president.
While following Lake, Maynard's agents discover he has a PO Box hidden away. They "borrow" the mail - notice the CIA has already been involved in several gross violations of the law, all in the name of national security - and discover to their horror that their "perfect" candidate is conducting a surreptitious correspondence with a young man looking for a wealthy male gigolo. We know that the young man, Ricky" is really the creation of the Brethren. The Brethren, always careful, learn who "AL" really is, and see a huge windfall in the making. What better extortion candidate than someone running for president. Soon they realize that there is a third party involved, a very powerful group of men, but they are determined to make the most of the situation. The ending, which I won't reveal, is less a blockbuster than a revelation of Grisham's sordid view of the world.
The "Brethren" are three ex-judges who have been incarcerated in a minimum security federal prison for a variety of avaricious crimes. While in prison, they procure the services of Trevor, a greedy little lawyer who agrees to act as the go-between in a dirty scheme to extort money from gay men who are fearful of being outed. Trevor bribes the prison guards to look the other way while he "smuggles" in forbidden documents and deposits their ill-begotten proceeds in an off-shore bank account. It's all very sordid.
A subplot, that becomes mixed with the affairs of the Brethren concerns Teddy Maynard, director of the CIA, who, appalled by the fall of communism and the concomitant reduction in military spending, conspires to find a candidate of suitable malleability, whom he can groom to be the next president. Aaron Lake, handsome, widowed, a light drinker, with no political baggage, seems the perfect choice. Just to be on the safe side, though, Maynard has Lake followed everywhere. By instigating terrorist actions at the appropriate time, and collecting huge amounts of money from weapons manufacturers who stand to reap huge profits from Lake's sole campaign promise: to double the defense budget; Maynard assures that Lake soon has a commanding lead over the vice-president, the previous front runner. Maynard will stop at nothing, including orchestrating a murder, to realize his dream of controlling the president.
While following Lake, Maynard's agents discover he has a PO Box hidden away. They "borrow" the mail - notice the CIA has already been involved in several gross violations of the law, all in the name of national security - and discover to their horror that their "perfect" candidate is conducting a surreptitious correspondence with a young man looking for a wealthy male gigolo. We know that the young man, Ricky" is really the creation of the Brethren. The Brethren, always careful, learn who "AL" really is, and see a huge windfall in the making. What better extortion candidate than someone running for president. Soon they realize that there is a third party involved, a very powerful group of men, but they are determined to make the most of the situation. The ending, which I won't reveal, is less a blockbuster than a revelation of Grisham's sordid view of the world.
I can't put my finger on it, but I just was not impressed by this book.
The story is of three judges called the Brethren, are convicts who now moonlight as 'Ricky' and 'Percy' - two young, hot boys who are in rehab and looking to write to some hopeful sugar daddies. The men who write to them are mostly not out of the closet. The Brethren then use their drunk lawyer to find out who these men are and blackmail them into giving them money. That's one story.
Second one is ofAaron Lake who is being groomed to be the next President of the United States by the CIA. Weird. Turns out he's a closeted gay and he writes to 'Ricky'. Long story short, they find out who this guy is. CIA does lots of things to keep it hidden and poof, they blackmail him and The Brethren get a 'Get Out Of Jail Free Card'. Whoopdeedoo!
The plot was predictable from the start and I just kind of dragged along the chapters till the end even though, I knew in the end I was going to say 'Sure, of course this would happen.'
Basically kind of meh. Glad I bought this book at a second hand bookstore.
The story is of three judges called the Brethren, are convicts who now moonlight as 'Ricky' and 'Percy' - two young, hot boys who are in rehab and looking to write to some hopeful sugar daddies. The men who write to them are mostly not out of the closet. The Brethren then use their drunk lawyer to find out who these men are and blackmail them into giving them money. That's one story.
Second one is of
The plot was predictable from the start and I just kind of dragged along the chapters till the end even though, I knew in the end I was going to say 'Sure, of course this would happen.'
Basically kind of meh. Glad I bought this book at a second hand bookstore.
medium-paced
A very interesting read that, to me, seems very politic heavy. There are elements of the legal system in here with Judges who are imprisoned handle cases where they are also they also have a side 'business' which not many know about apart from a set few, including a lawyer who does is their 'runner'.
Being honest, it did take me two goes to actually start this novel but that is more my fault rather than anything else. I do not normally read the descriptions of novels as I much prefer the author to take me on the journey and tell me what the story is all about rather than reading a 'briefing of it'. I had not fully appreciated that this would feature a lot more politics than I would normally like to read - it is not one of those types of stories that I would naturally gravitate towards. The first time around I think I reached just over the 50 pages and then set it aside and that was back in January this year. I decided to give this one another go now as I really want to read more of John Grisham's books and this was the next on the list (I am reading them in publication order). This time I knew what I was getting into, took my time and really got stuck into the story. This second time, I really enjoyed it once I got used to the political system in the US (I am from the UK).
This story has a very interesting plot that can still mostly be applied today although I would like to hope that society is a lot more open about certain issues now than it was back in 2005 (this was originally written in 2005). The main plot is you have three judges who exploit vulnerable males in a money scam. Each of these males have a secret that they would not want their family to find out.
A really great political legal thriller that centers around social issues.
For more reviews, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
Being honest, it did take me two goes to actually start this novel but that is more my fault rather than anything else. I do not normally read the descriptions of novels as I much prefer the author to take me on the journey and tell me what the story is all about rather than reading a 'briefing of it'. I had not fully appreciated that this would feature a lot more politics than I would normally like to read - it is not one of those types of stories that I would naturally gravitate towards. The first time around I think I reached just over the 50 pages and then set it aside and that was back in January this year. I decided to give this one another go now as I really want to read more of John Grisham's books and this was the next on the list (I am reading them in publication order). This time I knew what I was getting into, took my time and really got stuck into the story. This second time, I really enjoyed it once I got used to the political system in the US (I am from the UK).
This story has a very interesting plot that can still mostly be applied today although I would like to hope that society is a lot more open about certain issues now than it was back in 2005 (this was originally written in 2005). The main plot is you have three judges who exploit vulnerable males in a money scam. Each of these males have a secret that they would not want their family to find out.
A really great political legal thriller that centers around social issues.
For more reviews, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
it was an interesting crime book, I just really can't get over the homophobic undertones