Let’s take a look at another victim of my Cyprus crime/thriller reading spree. Earlier I read The Winner by David Baldacci, Camino Island by John Grisham, Run Away by Harlan Coben and Agent Running in the Field by John le  Carré. Now it’s time to go back to Grisham and this time in a setting a little bit more typical of him.

Our main characters are a pair of investigators from the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct, Lacy Stoltz, and Hugo Hatch. They get an anonymous tip-off that one of the Florida judges is corrupt on a scale unheard of before. When they meet their source, a disbarred lawyer Ramsay Mix, they learn that he has a contact close to the judge that is happy to divulge incriminating details. However, Mic, the contact, and their intermediary also hope on cashing in on the whistler award. As Lacy and Hugo learn the details of the judge’s shady dealings with one of the Indian casinos, they decide it’s time to bring in the FBI. Much to Mix’s chagrin.

They also try to find contacts from within the Tappacola Nation, and as they are due to meet yet another anonymous informant the situation changes drastically. Now it’s not only a theoretical investigation focused on the paper trail, instead, it turns into a dramatic chase and hunt.

As it usually happens with Grisham we do find out any details on the workings of the US judicial agencies, as well as the casino. But he does manage to keep the pace while sharing all the background information. Lacy is a character we instinctively side with. She is headstrong, but also imperfect. She makes mistakes, but we want her to redeem them. Ramsay Mix on the other hand is a lot less endearing, as indispensable to the plot as he is.

There isn’t much more to say about this book than that. It is a good story, keeping pace, but also interesting, but it is not one of Grisham’s classics. It’s also not as quirky as Camino Island, but still a perfect beach read.

Photo by Violetta Kaszubowska @vkphotospace.com