The Brethren - by John Grisham (Paperback)

About the Book

Housed at Trumble, a minimum security federal prison, are three former judges who call themselves The Brethren. They meet each day in the law library where they write briefs, handle cases for other inmates, and spend hours hatching schemes to make money. Then, when one of their scams goes awry and ensnares an innocent man with dangerous friends, The Brethren's days of quietly marking time are over.

Book Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. The third for a career-ending drunken joyride.

Meeting daily in the prison law 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 grips, 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.

Don't miss John Grisham's new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!

Review Quotes

"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

About the Author

John Grisham is the author of forty-seven consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judge's List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.

Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.

When he's not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.

John lives on a farm in central Virginia.