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| Categories | Thrillers & Suspense |
| Author | John Grisham |
| Publisher | Random House Large Print; Large type / Large print edition (November 1, 2022) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 624 pages |
| Item Weight | 1.19 pounds |
| Dimensions |
6.07 x 1.04 x 9.18 inches |
I. Book introduction
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two families. One courtroom showdown. • John Grisham’s most gripping thriller yet. • “A legal literary legend.” —USA Today
John Grisham returns to Mississippi with the riveting story of two sons of immigrant families who grow up as friends, but ultimately find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Grisham’s trademark twists and turns will keep you tearing through the pages until the stunning conclusion.
For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, and drugs to contract killings. The vice was controlled by small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumored to be members of the Dixie Mafia.
Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends, as well as Little League all-stars. But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions. Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to “clean up the Coast.” Hugh’s father became the “Boss” of Biloxi’s criminal underground. Keith went to law school and followed in his father’s footsteps. Hugh preferred the nightlife and worked in his father’s clubs. The two families were headed for a showdown, one that would happen in a courtroom.
Life itself hangs in the balance in The Boys from Biloxi, a sweeping saga rich with history and with a large cast of unforgettable characters.
Editorial Reviews
“A legal literary legend.” —USA Today
“John Grisham is about as good a storyteller as we’ve got in the United States these days.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Grisham’s work — always superior entertainment — is evolving into something more serious, more powerful, more worthy of his exceptional talent.” —The Washington Post
About John Grisham
John Grisham (born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 28 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing.
Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practised criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990.
Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. Grisham’s first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. The book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, and a 2012 TV series which continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. Seven of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas.
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 Girsham lives on a farm in central Virginia.
II. [Reviews] The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham
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1. JAMES DEATON Review The Boys from Biloxi
John Grisham’s latest novel, The Boys from Biloxi, is an odd book in one special way. I’ve read a lot of Grisham’s novels and also most of Don Winslow’s recent novels, and for at least the first 40 percent of the book, I would have sworn that I was reading a book by Don Winslow. Two Croatian families have settled in the Biloxi area and find American success stories, one by becoming the dominant crime family in the area and the other by adhering to the law, with the male protagonist becoming a lwayer and then the county district attorney. You can easily figure out where the conflict is coming from. Sons of both of these families know each other, play baseball together, and follow their in their father’s footsteps … all the way to the end.
It’s not that the plot has many major surprises, but it is still very well done. The male characters are well drawn, but I think that the book suffers lot in that Grisham almost totally ignores the women in these families. I don’t know why he does this. In the past, Grisham has done a very good job of developing some women characters. But not in this book. I would almost give the book three stars for this fault, but overall it’s good enough to push it into the four star range.
There is a really good part of the book that deals with how Jesse Rudy, who becomes the first lawyer in the Rudy clan before he becomes the county prosecutor, takes on the insurance companies who are not settling claims for the damage caused by Hurricane Camille in 1969 and achieves great success in forcing payment for claims.
The crime in the Biloxi area is something I know a little about. After graduating from Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) in 1943, my father’s first assignment was as a young second lieutenant in the military police at Keesler Field. The soldiers and airmen are mentioned a good bit in the book as customers of the joints run by the crime families. My father told me stories about Biloxi, but I know he left out almost all of the salacious details. What he told me was wild enough. so I had a personal interest in reading about the early post WW2 times covered in the book.
Recommended for all fans of John Grisham novels.
2. ADDIE W Review The Boys from Biloxi
Another incredible Grisham book. It’s not like his traditional courtroom dramas – this one reads more like a non-fiction historical account of the Mississippi Coast: the immigrants who shaped the area trying to work for a better life, the rise of the seafood industry, in which Biloxi became known as the Seafood Capital of the World, how families banded together after Hurricane Camille.
But the main theme explores the lawlessness and corruption of Biloxi’s “Strip” area, the rise of the Dixie Mafia, police corruption, prostitution, strip clubs, drugs, mafia – ALL TRUE FACTS despite Mississippi’s reputation for being a Bible-thumping, ultra-conservative state. The coast is definitely a different world, and Grisham does a fantastic job describing the different facets of coast life from the 1940’s – 1980’s.
The main storyline are two best friends who grew up playing baseball together – gotta love the mention of the still-present Biloxi-Gulfport sports rivalry – (and I love how Grisham always mentions the STL Cardinals in his novels) and how the boys would take trips out to Ship Island, go fishing, camp…but as teenagers, their lives take them down completely different paths as they follow their father’s footsteps.
Both immigrant families from Croatia who settled on “The Point,” (my fellow Coasties know exactly where this is) Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to clean up the Coast, and later became the district attorney. Hugh’s father became the “Boss” of Biloxi’s criminal underground.
I won’t share any spoilers! I’ve read several reviews that say the character development is horrible, that it is difficult to create a strong connection to the characters…I think he did that on purpose to create a sense of uneasiness that would have been felt if you were a part of that seedy underbelly world, not knowing who to trust and always having to watch your back.
There is not a lot of dialog between the characters, which is probably why you’ll hear people saying this reads more like a history book. But living here in Biloxi, knowing how true it is that the coast is VASTLY different than the rest of the state, always hearing rumors the Dixie Mafia is still around, seeing the casinos (literally from my back deck) and clubs still flourishing, watching the shrimp boats head out from the bay, experiencing and living with all the different cultures and ethnicities here on the coast…I really enjoyed this book!
3. DARLA Review The Boys from Biloxi
Two boys play baseball on opposing teams in Biloxi. Both are all-stars. Then they grow up. One follows in the footsteps of his DA father. The other learns to be a mob boss, a gangster. The stage is set for an epic showdown. John Grisham takes his time spinning this tale. After decades of bestsellers, he has our attention. Honestly, for the first third of the book I wondered if I would come up with more than an “I liked it” rating. I should not have doubted Grisham and his storytelling chops. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that I listened for 10.5 hours to his basketball story, Sooley. This may be one of my favorites from Grisham. The lines between good and evil are clearly drawn from the start with an ending that is made for the big screen.
Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
4. MANDY WHITE Review The Boys from Biloxi
Oh wow, John Grisham, another incredible story. I must admit, that when I started it I wasn’t sure. It didn’t feel like the typical Grisham novel. But all the background and history that was laid out was absolutely necessary to complete the story. It helped to understand why these characters were doing what they were doing. It gave the reader a better chance to connect with the characters. It was a slow burn to begin with but once it gets to the legal side of things, it certainly kicked into gear.
This is billed as ‘Two families, One courtroom showdown’ it is so much more than that. It is an epic saga and one that deserves your time and patience. Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up together in Biloxi. As kids, they played baseball together. As teenagers, their lives took very different paths. Keith follows in his father’s footsteps and goes to law school, where as Hugh also followed his fathers business into the dark and seedy nightclubs on the coast.
There is so much that I want to say about this. It is emotional and thought provoking. It was a different time and life was hard. These characters will find their way into your hearts. It is a story that will stay with me for a long time. More than a legal thriller, this bookhas so much going on and will continue to surprise you until the very end. It begs to be read.
Thank you so much to the team at Hachette Australia for my copy of this book to read. Easily 5 stars. The Boys from Biloxi is out now.
5. VAL WHEELER Review The Boys from Biloxi
I enjoyed the latest book from one of my long-time favourite authors John Grisham. The boys from Biloxi is a little different to his usual legal thrillers and is based on two families who live in Biloxi – the Rudy’s and the Malco’s, who started life as friends but grew apart.
It did have some legal tangles and court room battles, but it’s not your usual run of the mill, Grisham thriller. It was a slower paced book and builds on each of the characters giving you a chance to get to know them well and bases itself on the gaming, drinking and prostitution industry along the strip in Biloxi, I would suggest more of an epic rather than a thriller, though there were some very exciting parts with lots of corruption, liars and cheats.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would be very interested to read any similar titles by Grisham.
A big thank you to Doubleday books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book for an honest opinion.
6. MONNIE Review The Boys from Biloxi
Despite the fact that this prolific author is one of my favorites, after reading the first couple of chapters of any of his books – including this one – I always suspect I’m not going to enjoy it very much. And every single time – including this one – once I get back in the no-dialogue groove and start paying attention to the expertly crafted narrative that centers on intriguing characters and places, I’m hooked.
So it was with this one, which takes place in the coastal town of (as the title suggests), Biloxi, Mississippi, a popular destination for those looking for great beaches and scrumptious seafood. But to those who lived there, it was also a haven for corruption, with much of the vice under the tightly held reins of the so-called Dixie Mafia. Here is was, in the 1960s, that Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco first became friends as teenagers; but once the glow of their school baseball team faded, they went their separate ways: Rudy to law school, following the path forged by his successful lawyer father, Jesse; Hugh, to follow in the path forged by his equally successful mob boss father, Lance. As Keith’s father makes it his mission to rid the city of ne’er-do-wells, Hugh’s father vows to bring down those in government and law enforcement who are not in his pocket. That puts the two fathers and their two sons squarely at odds – in and out of the courtroom – that makes readers constantly question who, if anyone, will emerge triumphant and suspect that the story won’t end well (some will argue, no doubt, that it didn’t).
And that’s all I can say without spoiling it for other readers, except to say it’s a captivating story that I really didn’t want to put down. Kudos (once again)!
7. ROSELADY Review The Boys from Biloxi
The boys from Biloxi is a well written story of two families. Its early detailed description of the neighborhood, daily family life, the personalities and attitudes of the people and times resonate with those of a certain age land can take you back mentally to the past perhaps to neighborhoods where you grew up.
It features two boys – one from each of those families and how their lives were largely shaped by decisions they made in their teenage years. Good decisions vs bad decisions, good associates vs bad associates … all unfold as their stories and lives play out in the book.
The backdrop is Biloxi … a beautiful coastal community riddled with crime and corruption and where vice of just about every kind are out of control until the state and local politicians and police get serious about cleaning it up. That’s when things really heat up. Does crime really pay? Do the bad guys get what they deserve? Is it a predictable ending or not? All is revealed and explained in the book.
Grisham continues to live up to his legacy of being a master storyteller. Each novel different, each novel somewhat familiar, but each tale still new and fresh.
FYI: Be aware, there are detailed, descriptive references to boxing, cock-fighting, and other violent actions in this book
8. LAURIE Review The Boys from Biloxi
In my estimation, John Grisham and Stephen King are the reigning American storytellers today. Although they write in different genres, both adept at creating interesting characters and writing compelling books that sweep the reader up, put the pedal down and take off down twisting, winding roads with stories that end all too soon. With this latest book, Grisham again proves he hasn’t lost his touch.
Best friends Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grow up in their larger-than-life father’s shadows in the sixties in Biloxi, Mississippi, a city known for it illicit drinking, gambling and prostitution. Jesse Rudy is a crusading district attorney while Lance Malco is the boss of the vice industry, which puts the friendship of Keith and Hugh to the test. All too soon they grow apart as each follows in their father’s footsteps. Soon the generational crowns are passed and so, too, the epic battles. Can they continue to be friends or are they also destined to become adversaries?
Spanning generations from immigrants to two successful men in their respective fields, this is an American saga that is rich in characters and drama, both inside and outside of the courtroom. Steeped in Southern tradition, Grisham again brings to life characters only he has the imagination to pull off. The family backgrounds are compelling reading and the courtroom scenes make for good theater in this ambitious novel that is not only entertaining but tackles serious issues facing the U.S. today.
Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an advance copy of this book for review. The publication date is October 18, 2022.
9. JEANNE Review The Boys from Biloxi
The Rudy and Malco families are descended from Croation immigrants who settle in Biloxi. Biloxi is a town filled with vice and most of it is controlled by Lance Malco. Hugh Malco and Keith Rudy are friends growing up, both All Star Little Leaguers but eventually they grow apart. Hugh will follow in his father’s footsteps while Keith becomes a lawyer and helps his father, Jesse, fight the corruption.
The story really depicts the seedy side of Biloxi with the illegal bars and the thing I didn’t like about the book was the evil but that just proves how good the writing was. Fats, the sheriff, was positively repulsive. The characters were well developed and I really liked and rooted for the ones I should have and found the evil ones very evil.
Lots of legalese as expected in a Grisham novel and the beginning seemed a bit slow but as we got more into the novel the battle of good and evil was on.
Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday for providing me with a digital copy.
10. LARRY Review The Boys from Biloxi
John Grisham’s latest novel, The Boys from Biloxi, is an odd book in one special way. I’ve read a lot of Grisham’s novels and also most of Don Winslow’s recent novels, and for at least the first 40 percent of the book, I would have sworn that I was reading a book by Don Winslow. Two Croatian families have settled in the Biloxi area and find American success stories, one by becoming the dominant crime family in the area and the other by adhering to the law, with the male protagonist becoming a lawyer and then the county district attorney. You can easily figure out where the conflict is coming from. Sons of both of these families know each other, play baseball together, and follow their in their father’s footsteps … all the way to the end.
It’s not that the plot has many major surprises, but it is still very well done. The male characters are well drawn, but I think that the book suffers a lot in that Grisham almost totally ignores the women in these families. I don’t know why he does this. In the past, Grisham has done a very good job of developing some women characters. But not in this book. I would almost give the book three stars for this fault, but overall it’s good enough to push it into the four star range.
There is a really good part of the book that deals with how Jesse Rudy, who becomes the first lawyer in the Rudy clan before he becomes the county prosecutor, takes on the insurance companies who are not settling claims for the damage caused by Hurricane Camille in 1969 and achieves great success in forcing payment for claims.
The crime in the Biloxi area is something I know a little about. After graduating from Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) in 1943, my father’s first assignment was as a young second lieutenant in the military police at Keesler Field. The soldiers and airmen are mentioned a good bit in the book as customers of the joints run by the crime families. My father told me stories about Biloxi, but I know he left out almost all of the salacious details. What he told me was wild enough. so I had a personal interest in reading about the early post WW2 times covered in the book.
Recommended for all fans of John Grisham novels.
III. [Quote] The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham
Excerpted from The Boys from Biloxi: A Legal Thriller by John Grisham
Chapter 1 – The Boys from Biloxi
A hundred years ago, Biloxi was a bustling resort and fishing community on the Gulf Coast. Some of its 12,000 people worked in shipbuilding, some in the hotels and restaurants, but for the majority their livelihoods came from the ocean and its bountiful supply of seafood. The workers were immigrants from Eastern Europe, most from Croatia where their ancestors had fished for centuries in the Adriatic Sea. The men worked the schooners and trawlers harvesting seafood in the Gulf while the women and children shucked oysters and packed shrimp for ten cents an hour. There were forty canneries side by side in an area known as the Back Bay. In 1925, Biloxi shipped twenty million tons of seafood to the rest of the country. Demand was so great, and the supply so plentiful, that by then the city could boast of being the “Seafood Capital of the World.”
The immigrants lived in either barracks or shotgun houses on Point Cadet, a peninsula on the eastern edge of Biloxi, around the corner from the beaches of the Gulf. Their parents and grandparents were Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, as well as Croatians, and they had been quick to assimilate into the ways of their new country. The children learned English, taught it to their parents, and rarely spoke the mother tongues at home. Most of their surnames had been unpronounceable to customs officials and had been modified and Americanized at the Port of New Orleans and Ellis Island. In Biloxi cemeteries, there were tombstones with names like Jurkovich, Horvat, Conovich, Kasich, Rodak, Babbich, and Peranich. They were scattered about and mixed with those of Smith, Brown, O’Keefe, Mattina, and Bellande. The immigrants were naturally clannish and self-protective, but by the second generation they were intermarrying with the early French families and all manner of Anglos.
Prohibition was still the law, and throughout the Deep South most Baptists and Methodists righteously pursued the dry life. Along the Coast, though, those of European descent and Catholic persuasion took a dimmer view of abstinence. In fact, Biloxi was never dry, regardless of the Eighteenth Amendment. When Prohibition swept the country in 1920 Biloxi hardly noticed. Its bars, dives, honky-tonks, neighborhood pubs, and upscale clubs not only remained open but thrived. Speakeasies were not necessary because booze was so prevalent and no one, especially the police, cared. Biloxi became a popular destination for parched Southerners. Add the allure of the beaches, delicious seafood, a temperate climate, and nice hotels, and tourism flourished. A hundred years ago the Gulf Coast became known as “the poor man’s Riviera.”
As always, unchecked vice proved contagious. Gambling joined drinking as the more popular illegal activities. Makeshift casinos sprang up in bars and clubs. Poker, blackjack, and dice games were in plain view and could be found everywhere. In the lobbies of the fashionable hotels there were rows of slot machines operating in blatant disregard for the law.
Brothels had been around forever but kept undercover. Not so in Biloxi. They were plentiful and serviced not only their faithful johns but police and politicians as well. Many were in the same buildings as bars and gambling tables so that a young man looking for pleasure need only one stop.
Though not flaunted as widely as sex and booze, drugs like marijuana and heroin were easy to find, especially in the music halls and lounges.
Journalists often found it difficult to believe that such illegal activity was so openly accepted in a state so religiously conservative. They wrote articles about the wild and freewheeling ways in Biloxi, but nothing changed. No one with authority seemed to care. The prevailing mood was simply: “That’s just the Biloxi.” Crusading politicians railed against the crime and preachers thundered from the pulpits, but there was never a serious effort to “clean up the Coast.”
The biggest obstacle facing any attempts at reform was the longtime corruption of the police and elected officials. The cops and deputies worked for meager salaries and were more than willing to take the cash and look the other way. The local politicians were easily bought off and prospered nicely. Everyone was making money, everyone was having fun, why ruin a good thing? No one forced the drinkers and gamblers to venture into Biloxi. If they didn’t like the vice there, they could stay home or go to New Orleans. But if they chose to spend their money in Biloxi, they knew they would not be bothered by the police.
Criminal activity got a major boost in 1941 when the military built a large training base on land that was once the Biloxi Country Club. It was named Keesler Army Airfield, after a World War I hero from Mississippi, and the name soon became synonymous with bad behavior from tens of thousands of soldiers getting ready for war. The number of bars, casinos, brothels, and striptease joints increased dramatically. As did crime. The police were flooded with complaints from soldiers: rigged slots, floating roulette, cheating dealers, spiked drinks, and sticky-fingered prostitutes. Since the owners were making money they complained little, but there were plenty of fights, assaults on their girls, and broken windows and whiskey bottles. As always, the police protected the ones who paid them, and the jailhouse doors revolved with GIs. Over half a million of them passed through Keesler on their way to Europe and Japan, and later Korea and Vietnam.
Biloxi vice was so profitable that it naturally attracted the usual assortment of characters from the underworld: career criminals, outlaws, bootleggers, smugglers, rumrunners, con men, hit men, pimps, leg-breakers, and a more ambitious class of crime lords. In the late 1950s, a branch of a loose-knit gang of violent thugs nicknamed the Dixie Mafia settled in Biloxi with plans to establish their turf and take over a share of the vice. Before the Dixie Mafia, there had always been jealousy among the club owners, but they were making money and life was good. There was a killing every now and then and the usual intimidation, but no serious efforts by one group to take over.
Other than ambition and violence, the Dixie Mafia had little in common with the real Cosa Nostra. It was not a family, thus there was little loyalty. Its members—and the FBI was never certain who was a member, who was not, and how many claimed to be—were a loose assortment of bad boys and misfits who preferred crime over honest work. There was no established organization or hierarchy. No don at the top and leg-breakers at the bottom, with mid-level thugs in between. With time, one club owner managed to consolidate his holdings and assume more influence. He became “the Boss.”
What the Dixie Mafia had was a propensity for violence that often stunned the FBI. Through its history, as it evolved and made its way south to the Coast, it left behind an astonishing number of dead bodies, and virtually none of the murders were ever solved. It operated with only one rule, one hard-and-fast, cast-in-stone blood oath: “Thou shalt not snitch to the cops.” Those who did were either found in ditches or not found at all. Certain shrimp boats were rumored to unload weighted corpses twenty miles from shore, into the deep, warm waters of the Mississippi Sound.
In spite of its reputation for lawlessness, crime in Biloxi was kept under control by the owners and watched closely by the police. With time, the vice became roughly concentrated into one principal section of town, a one-mile stretch of Highway 90, along the beach. “The Strip” was lined with casinos, bars, and brothels, and was easily ignored by the law-abiding citizens. Life away from it was normal and safe. If one wanted trouble, it was easy to find. Otherwise, it was easy to avoid. Biloxi prospered because of seafood, shipbuilding, tourism, construction, and a formidable work ethic fueled by immigrants and their dreams of a better life. The city built schools, hospitals, churches, highways, bridges, seawalls, parks, recreational facilities, and anything else it needed to improve the lives of its people.
….
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