Wednesday, December 11, 2024

The Judge's List


 




The Judge's List  by John Grisham 357 pages

Investigator Lacy Stoltz follows the trail of a serial killer, and closes in on a shocking suspect—a sitting judge—in “one of the best crime reads of the year.... Bristling with high-tech detail and shivering with suspense.... Worth staying up all night to finish” (Wall Street Journal).

In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz investigated a corrupt judge who was taking millions in bribes from a crime syndicate. She put the criminals away, but only after being attacked and nearly killed. Three years later, and approaching forty, she is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change.

Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby’s father was murdered twenty years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold. But Jeri has a suspect whom she has become obsessed with and has stalked for two decades. Along the way, she has discovered other victims.

Suspicions are easy enough, but proof seems impossible. The man is brilliant, patient, and always one step ahead of law enforcement. He is the most cunning of all serial killers. He knows forensics, police procedure, and most important: he knows the law.

He is a judge, in Florida—under Lacy’s jurisdiction.

He has a list, with the names of his victims and targets, all unsuspecting people unlucky enough to have crossed his path and wronged him in some way. How can Lacy pursue him, without becoming the next name on his list?


Personally, I think John Grisham stories make better movies than reads. There are slow parts where characters repeat themselves, especially when explaining the circumstances of the case to yet another police official. Also, I  listened to this on Hoopla. I was read by the actress Mary Louise Parker. She did not pause between sections (not chapters) so sometimes I was confused by the sudden change of characters and settings. So, read the book, don't listen. Better yet, watch the movie if one comes out.:((  Also, it felt anticlimactic. 

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