They call themselves The Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison.  One was sent down for tax evasion.  Another, for skimming bingo profits.  The third, for a career-ending drunken joyride.  Meeting daily in the prison library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong.

Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich- very fast.

And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam....while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt.  A bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grip- and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings.  For the Brethren, the timing couldn't be better.

Because they've just found the perfect victim....


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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"Gripping ... engaging and fast-paced ... will hook you from the first page and won't let you go."—New York Post

"A crackerjack tale."—Entertainment Weekly

"Fast-paced and action-packed...you'll be thoroughly entertained."—New Orleans Times-Picayune

"The plot is as up-to-date as tomorrow's newspaper, with allusions to presidential polls and debates, campaign financing, money laundering and offshore financial finagling.... Add to these tantalizing ingredients the steady action, with some clever surprises." —The New York Times

A Main Selection of the Doubleday Book Club, the Literary Guild, and the Mystery Guild


From the Paperback edition.

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John Grisham is the author of The Testament, The Street Lawyer, The Partner, The Runaway Jury, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, The Client, The Pelican Brief, The Firm, and A Time to Kill.


From the Hardcover edition.

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