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| Categories | Genre Fiction |
| Author | John Grisham |
| Publisher | Arrow (January 1, 2011) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 450 pages |
| Item Weight | 10.9 ounces |
| Dimensions |
5.08 x 1.06 x 7.8 inches |
I. Book introduction
The Brethren is a legal thriller novel by American author John Grisham, published in 2000.
#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.
Plot
The “Brethren” are three former judges who are incarcerated at Trumble, a fictional federal minimum security prison located in northern Florida. The trio embark on a scam to deceive and exploit wealthy closeted gay men. None of them are gay, but they write convincingly as two young vulnerable gay men, developing friendships and then asking for financial help. In some cases, they also try blackmail.
With the help of their lawyer, Trevor Carson, they transfer their ill-gotten money to a secret Bahamian bank account. Carson takes one-third and employs private detectives to investigate the victims of the scam. This takes over from Carson’s normal legal business, which had been making very little money for him.
Meanwhile, Teddy Maynard, the ruthless and soon-to-retire director of the CIA, is orchestrating a scheme to tip the United States presidential election in the favor of Aaron Lake, a hawkish congressman supported by arms manufacturers. However, Lake, who is closeted, is hooked by the unwitting Brethren in their scam. Realizing that Lake stands to be exposed, Maynard scrambles to stop them from finding out the truth. After the Brethren fire Carson, he is killed by CIA agents in the Caribbean.
The CIA plant a man inside Trumble, who tells the Brethren that he knows about the scam. A deal is worked out, money changes hands and the judges are pardoned by the outgoing president at Maynard’s insistence. The judges leave the country and travel to Europe, where they later restart the scam. Meanwhile, Lake is elected and Maynard, eager to finish the cover-up, selects for him a suitable First Lady.
Editorial Reviews
- “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 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. Reviewer: The Brethren
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1. JAMMING OUT reviews for The Brethren
First I am an older woman who grew up reading Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christy and other mystery writers of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Then along came “thrillers” and “legal thrillers” of Grisham, Paterson and others and I am one happy lady.
I particularly like Grisham’s style and have read almost everything he’s written. I even like the way he ends the books. Now, about The Brethren.
After picking up a paperback copy of the book and reading a little at a time, I slowly but surely became hooked on the story. By accident my daughter picked up the book and became so engrossed in it that I let her take it home and purchased the book for my Kindle. From about Chap 5 to the end I could not put it down and read straight through to the early morning light.
As for getting “connected” to the characters, well for me it wasn’t all that necessary as all I wanted was to read about was who they were, what they did, why they did it and how was it all gonna end up, although I must say, I really liked all of the characters (the good guys and the bad guys). For my simple mind, it wasn’t disappointing and I enjoyed it from beginning to the usual John Grisham end. So. If you like John Grisham(even just a little) and/or legal thrilers I recommend this book.
2. MANDREK LARL reviews for The Brethren
The Brethren – Grisham masterfully entwines two distinct & separate subplots in a complex web of double deception
This one is good, very good, as Grisham entwines two distinct and initially separate subplots in a complex web of double deception. The first storyline being of a group of former, now imprisoned judges who are running a blackmail scheme targeting closet gay men; the second is the tale of the cynical manipulation of the American election primaries by the director of CIA to have his chosen candidate, a little known squeaky clean congressman, win the nomination; no spoilers her but more details are available in the Amazon review.
Of course you know that at some point these two strands are going to become entwined and half of the suspense comes from waiting for the “how-and-when’s-it-going-to-happen” factor and the other half from the “now-it’s-happened-how’s-Grisham-going-to-resolve-this-with-a-win-win” factor. Sure there are a couple of questionable coincidences and incredulous improbabilities but it’s a story, but Grisham’s use of a genuinely plausible human error to link the strands is very clever.
As ever with Grisham it’s well written and the characters, good and bad, are well developed but note though that anyone looking for Grisham’s trade-mark legal insider knowledge maybe be disappointed, the blackmailers maybe former judges but that’s just a convenient hook rather than an essential element of the story. The real strength of this book lies in the intrigue that Grisham conjures in his storytelling.
3. JOHN reviews for The Brethren
“The Brethren” – Three convict judges, a Presidential election and blackmail intrigue
For the first half of The Brethren, we follow two quite separate tales:
- Trumble is a minimum security federal prison. Three ex-judges are running a mail scam with the help of their mediocre lawyer
- CIA director Teddy Maynard plots to subvert to Presidential election with a handpicked candidate, Congressman Aaron Lake, to promote his own agenda
Eventually, the two worlds must collide, and when they do it is not, in my opinion, entirely unexpected as to why. However, that does not actually bother me in this case – it is how this collision is handled that makes the book so readable. The last quarter of the book outlines how the two groups come to a mutually agreeable conclusion, and it comes as a bit of a surprise the route that Maynard takes, but in a good way.
There is a sinister side to the Maynard character, and his final meeting with Lake only adds to the darkness that is the political background. Maynard’s plotting reminded me, in some ways, of the TV series Scandal – a secretive intelligence organisation ‘decides’ who will be the next president.
The characters are well developed, and two of the judges are portrayed with a degree of sympathy, especially when a harshly convicted ‘drug trader’ appears for a brief cameo. The third is suitably disagreeable, and their lawyer whilst well developed is similarly an unsympathetic character. I was certainly hoping for the best for two of the judges.
This is one of Grisham’s better books. His cynical review of both politics and the justice system – one of the judges begins to rethink some of his decisions – seems very apt in today’s world, even though this book is quite old. Overall a good 4 stars, close to a 5.
4. ROB reviews for The Brethren
A stand alone (no courtrooms in sight) thriller published 2000.
4 stars for a good yarn
Let me start by saying this is a tale of three incarcerated judges who are running an extortion racket from inside gaol. On the surface this was entertaining in its own right but, for me, the real story was much darker and very scary.
The racket was that the prisoners would place adds in gay magazines pretending to be young men looking for meaningful relationships with older men. Most of the men who replied were men leading double lives and once they were hooked the judges would threaten to expose them unless they paid up big time.
This went well for some time until they hooked the wrong man at the wrong time.
The wrong man was a leading contender in the political race for the white house.
Where the story got scary was when the head of the CIA wanted the incumbent president to increase military spending to counter a perceived Russian threat.
The President told the head of the CIA “that he could fly a kite; it was not going to happen whilst he was the president”.
This left the head of the CIA with a dilemma. If the President won’t do as he is told we’ll just have to find one that will.
What follows is a very credible tale of how the CIA went about using their inside knowledge and power to discredit the incumbent president and push their hand picked congressman to the White House. Watching how the media, the politicians and ultimately the populous are manipulated makes for scary reading.
But in a world of secrets there was one secret that the CIA did not know, their candidate was gay and the judges were turning the screws.
Entertaining but it put a shiver up my spine all the same.
5. MARGITTE reviews for The Brethren
The Bretheren was published in 2000, one year before 9/11, which makes it a remarkable read, and for those who read it at the time, must have been flabbergasted at the horrific event of that day, September 11, 2001 in New York.
In the marketing world an expression is used which rings true for everything in life: You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough – Joseph E. Levine. Another concept is to first create a need(if there isn’t an existing one) for a product, otherwise it won’t sell. At first glance the statement appears too simple to really grasp the impact it has on politics, industry, even conservation, but it is the most powerful concept in use today.
The story, almost too fictional to be complete fiction, has this idea as starting point and proceed to implement it in a highly suspenseful drama in which three incarcerated judges execute a scam which works perfectly until they target the ‘wrong’ man. This man had the clout to make their actions look like a Sunday school picnic, which in the end, it was.
For the uninformed, this tale is just a fantasy, but for those in the know, it is a disturbing hit too close to home for comfort. And for those who think the events cannot be possible, believe me, it is not only possible, it happens all the time!
I enjoyed the book just as much as all the other John Grishams I have read through the years. It helps that he was a practising lawyer and know the ropes….mmm…yes…definitely the ropes
Thrilling, suspenseful and informative. Loved it.
6. COREY reviews for The Brethren
Another enjoyable and easy-read by Grisham, for a while for me it was extremely hard to follow, where the main part of the story involves a scam, and for the longest time I wasn’t sure who was scamming who, the story kept jumping around, but as it progressed it all started to some together.
They call themselves The Brethren, a trio of three-stooges type disgraced former judges who have been doing time in a minimum Florida federal prison known as Trumble. #1 is sent to prison for Tax Evasion, #2 for skimming bingo profits, and #3 for a career-ending drunken joyride But just because they’re in prison doesn’t mean they can’t still break the law.
They have dreamt up a perfect scam, to pose as homosexuals looking for Pen Pals, their motive, to scam and exploit their pen pals. Then one day, Congressman Aaron Lake is running for President of the United States in hoping to expand America’s Military capabilities, with a corrupt government official pulling the strings. Realizing that Lake is hooked by the Brethren and their scam, the conspirators must prevent them from discovering the truth. The Brethren have found the perfect victim.
As I said up above, really hard to follow for awhile, no idea where Grisham was going with the story, but then things started adding up the further I got. A fun political/legal thriller worth checking out!
7. STEPH reviews for The Brethren
I’m not usually a John Grisham fan. As a lawyer, I read to escape the drama of my daily life, not to be immersed in another attorney’s fictional version of what he wishes our occupation looked like. However, this book far exceeded my expectations. The writing was creative, descriptive, and exciting, with incredible attention to detail. Although technically a drama, reading this book felt like an adventure I did not want to end.
This wasn’t a book about the law, or lawyers, or the legal field. Half of the story takes place in a federal prison, and there is a lawyer in it (if you can call him that), but that’s really the extent of “The Law” in this book (except for the eccentric Kangaroo Court, of course). Thankfully.
The plot-line could have been very one-dimensional, but it wasn’t. Instead, I counted a minimum of five separate plot-lines that all intertwined to make an exciting novel that ended far too soon. And far too abruptly.
8. SUSAN reviews for The Brethren
I read this book when it was first published and then read it again years later.
Of the several novels I’ve read by this author, this is the only one causing me to smile at various intervals throughout.
It contains a multitude of sly humor seeping up from the pages, whether it’s situational, character development, interactions, or dialog.
The story of three judges remanded to federal prison, they’re resourceful and creative in raising money for their planned ‘release’. Not particularly likable, they ARE funny and exist in situations of their own provocation.
In fact, most, if not all characters in this book are not people you’d like to know, so I was actually rooting for the protagonists not to get caught.
When I re-read this many years later, it wasn’t quite so humorous and I was struck by several politically incorrect comments not noticed the first time around. They may be trigger inducing for some.
I don’t know if this stood the test of time and how others will respond…
9. ENSIFORM reviews for The Brethren
In a minimum-security prison, three old corrupt judges pass their days away running a scam by mail, asking help and promising companionship from closeted gay men across the country. When the marks bite, the judges demand money. Meanwhile, a hawkish head of the CIA plans to engineer the presidential election of a handpicked Congressman, Aaron Lake, in a single-issue campaign based on fomenting the fear of world war.
While it may seem obvious to some at what point these two plots will converge, I was not so bright and was taken by pleasant surprise. With each new development, I enjoyed it more. This is Grisham as he is so often said to be, but it’s the first time I have seen it: terrific storytelling, perfect pacing, black humor, danger, twists, characters you love to hate, and of course nail-biting suspense. Will this trio of unpleasant but somehow sympathetic rascals get away with it? I turned the pages frantically to see how it all ended, and Grisham delivered the surprises up to and including the very last page. Thoroughly entertaining.
10. KERRA reviews for The Brethren
This book was awesome. I thought it would be one of those books where you could guess everything that happened or was going to happen, but I was wrong. The reason I thought this was because in the beginning of the book there were two different stories going on and I figured that both of them would merge eventually somehow. Well they did, and they did merge in the way that I guessed they would (I didn’t want to believe it) but they did. However, when they started to get deeper in how the out come of the two merged together was completely different and suprised me. I was very happy with the ending also, it was kind of pradictable, but if it would have ended any other way it probably would have made me mad and I would not be giving such a good review. I also have to say that I do not normally read books with a lot of law and military lingo in it, but Grisham has a way of using it to where you understand it and it doesn’t leave you saying “hu??” So I liked that alot because I was a little judgemental when I first started it, like great I am going to hate this book because there is going to be too much lingo in it that I don’t understand. I also honestly really don’t care for books that are all about cops and police work or millitary really because most of the time they are just too boring for me and I would reather watch movies. However, this book was amazing and I recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers and books that are a little law and military related.
III. The Brethren Quotes
The best book quotes from The Brethren by John Grisham
“Honorable Finn Yarber, age sixty, in for two years now with five to go for income tax evasion.”
“Joe Roy Spicer was his name, and by default he acted as the Chief Justice of the tribunal. In his previous life, Judge Spicer had been a Justice of the Peace in Mississippi, duly elected by the people of his little county, and sent away when the feds caught him skimming bingo profits from a Shriners club.”
“Hatlee Beech was the third member of the tribunal. He spent most of his time in the infirmary because of hemorrhoids, or headaches, or swollen glands. Beech was fifty-six, the youngest of the three, and with nine years to go he was convinced he would die in prison.”
“And they drank heavily, partied with great enthusiasm, and relished the drug culture; they moved in and out and slept around, and this was okay because they defined their own morality. They were fighting for the Mexicans and the redwoods, dammit! They had to be good people!”
“What would his friends think? The Honorable Hatlee Beech, federal judge, writing prose like a faggot, extorting money out of innocent people.”
“It preyed on human desire and it paid off by sheer terror.”
Excerpted from The Brethren by John Grisham
Chapter One – The Brethren
FOR THE WEEKLY DOCKET the court jester wore his standard garb of well-used and deeply faded maroon pajamas and lavender terry-cloth shower shoes with no socks. He wasn’t the only inmate who went about his daily business in his pajamas, but no one else dared wear lavender shoes. His name was T. Karl, and he’d once owned banks in Boston.
The pajamas and shoes weren’t nearly as troubling as the wig. It parted at the middle and rolled in layers downward, over his ears, with tight curls coiling off into three directions, and fell heavily onto his shoulders. It was a bright gray, almost white, and fashioned after the Old English magistrate’s wigs from centuries earlier. A friend on the outside had found it at a secondhand costume store in Manhattan, in the Village.
T. Karl wore it to court with great pride, and, odd as it was, it had, with time, become part of the show. The other inmates kept their distance from T. Karl anyway, wig or not.
He stood behind his flimsy folding table in the prison cafeteria, tapped a plastic mallet that served as a gavel, cleared his squeaky throat, and announced with great dignity: “Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. The Inferior Federal Court of North Florida is now in session. Please rise.”
No one moved, or at least no one made an effort to stand. Thirty inmates lounged in various stages of repose in plastic cafeteria chairs, some looking at the court jester, some chatting away as if he didn’t exist.
T. Karl continued: “Let all ye who search for justice draw nigh and get screwed.”
No laughs. It had been funny months earlier when T. Karl first tried it. Now it was just another part of the show. He sat down carefully, making sure the rows of curls bouncing upon his shoulders were given ample chance to be seen, then he opened a thick red leather book which served as the official record for the court. He took his work very seriously.
Three men entered the room from the kitchen. Two of them wore shoes. One was eating a saltine. The one with no shoes was also bare-legged up to his knees, so that below his robe his spindly legs could be seen. They were smooth and hairless and very brown from the sun. A large tattoo had been applied to his left calf. He was from California.
All three wore old church robes from the same choir, pale green with gold trim. They came from the same store as T. Karl’s wig, and had been presented by him as gifts at Christmas. That was how he kept his job as the court’s official clerk.
There were a few hisses and jeers from the spectators as the judges ambled across the tile floor, in full regalia, their robes flowing. They took their places behind a long folding table, near T. Karl but not too near, and faced the weekly gathering. The short round one sat in the middle. Joe Roy Spicer was his name, and by default he acted as the Chief Justice of the tribunal. In his previous life, Judge Spicer had been a Justice of the Peace in Mississippi, duly elected by the people of his little county, and sent away when the feds caught him skimming bingo profits from a Shriners club.
“Please be seated,” he said. Not a soul was standing.
The judges adjusted their folding chairs and shook their robes until they fell properly around them. The assistant warden stood to the side, ignored by the inmates. A guard in uniform was with him. The Brethren met once a week with the prison’s approval. They heard cases, mediated disputes, settled little fights among the boys, and had generally proved to be a stabilizing factor amid the population.
Spicer looked at the docket, a neat hand-printed sheet of paper prepared by T. Karl, and said, “Court shall come to order.”
To his right was the Californian, the Honorable Finn Yarber, age sixty, in for two years now with five to go for income tax evasion. A vendetta, he still maintained to anyone who would listen. A crusade by a Republican governor who’d managed to rally the voters in a recall drive to remove Chief Justice Yarber from the California Supreme Court. The rallying point had been Yarber’s opposition to the death penalty, and his high-handedness in delaying every execution. Folks wanted blood, Yarber prevented it, the Republicans whipped up a frenzy, and the recall was a smashing success. They pitched him onto the street, where he floundered for a while until the IRS began asking questions. Educated at Stanford, indicted in Sacramento, sentenced in San Francisco, and now serving his time at a federal prison in Florida.
In for two years and Finn was still struggling with the bitterness. He still believed in his own innocence, still dreamed of conquering his enemies. But the dreams were fading. He spent a lot of time on the jogging track, alone, baking in the sun and dreaming of another life.
“First case is Schneiter versus Magruder,” Spicer announced as if a major antitrust trial was about to start.
“Schneiter’s not here,” Beech said.
“Where is he?”
“Infirmary. Gallstones again. I just left there.”
Hatlee Beech was the third member of the tribunal. He spent most of his time in the infirmary because of hemorrhoids, or headaches, or swollen glands. Beech was fifty-six, the youngest of the three, and with nine years to go he was convinced he would die in prison. He’d been a federal judge in East Texas, a hardfisted conservative who knew lots of Scripture and liked to quote it during trials.
He’d had political ambitions, a nice family, money from his wife’s family’s oil trust. He also had a drinking problem which no one knew about until he ran over two hikers in Yellowstone. Both died. The car Beech had been driving was owned by a young lady he was not married to. She was found naked in the front seat, too drunk to walk.
They sent him away for twelve years.
Joe Roy Spicer, Finn Yarber, Hatlee Beech. The Inferior Court of North Florida, better known as the Brethren around Trumble, a minimum security federal prison with no fences, no guard towers, no razor wire. If you had to do time, do it the federal way, and do it in a place like Trumble.
“Should we default him?” Spicer asked Beech.
“No, just continue it until next week.”
“Okay. I don’t suppose he’s going anywhere.”
“I object to a continuance,” Magruder said from the crowd.
“Too bad,” said Spicer. “It’s continued until next week.”
Magruder was on his feet. “That’s the third time it’s been continued. I’m the plaintiff. I sued him. He runs to the infirmary every time we have a docket.”
“What’re ya’ll fightin over?” Spicer asked.
“Seventeen dollars and two magazines,” T. Karl said helpfully.
“That much, huh?” Spicer said. Seventeen dollars would get you sued every time at Trumble.
Finn Yarber was already bored. With one hand he stroked his shaggy gray beard, and with the other he raked his long fingernails across the table. Then he popped his toes, loudly, crunching them into the floor in an efficient little workout that grated on the nerves. In his other life, when he had titles–Mr. Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court–he often presided while wearing leather clogs, no socks, so that he could exercise his toes during the dull oral arguments. “Continue it,” he said.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Magruder said solemnly.
“Now that’s original,” said Beech. “One more week, then we’ll default Schneiter.”
“So ordered,” Spicer said, with great finality. T. Karl made a note in the docket book. Magruder sat down in a huff. He’d filed his complaint in the Inferior Court by handing to T. Karl a one-page summary of his allegations against Schneiter. Only one page. The Brethren didn’t tolerate paperwork. One page and you got your day in court. Schneiter had replied with six pages of invective, all of which had been summarily stricken by T. Karl.
The rules were kept simple. Short pleadings. No discovery. Quick justice. Decisions on the spot, and all decisions were binding if both parties submitted to the jurisdiction of the court. No appeals; there was nowhere to take one. Witnesses were not given an oath to tell the truth. Lying was completely expected. It was, after all, a prison.
“What’s next?” Spicer asked.
T. Karl hesitated for a second, then said, “It’s the Whiz case.”
Things were suddenly still for a moment, then the plastic cafeteria chairs rattled forward in one noisy offensive. The inmates scooted and shuffled until T. Karl announced, “That’s close enough!” They were less than twenty feet away from the bench.
“We shall maintain decorum!” he proclaimed.
The Whiz matter had been festering for months at Trumble. Whiz was a young Wall Street crook who’d bilked some rich clients. Four million dollars had never been accounted for, and legend held that Whiz had stashed it offshore and managed it from inside Trumble. He had six years left, and would be almost forty when paroled. It was widely assumed that he was quietly serving his time until one glorious day when he would walk free, still a young man, and fly off in a private jet to a beach where the money was waiting.
Inside, the legend only grew, partly because Whiz kept to himself and spent long hours every day studying financials and technical charts and reading impenetrable economic publications. Even the warden had tried to cajole him into sharing market tips.
An ex-lawyer known as Rook had somehow got next to Whiz, and had somehow convinced him to share a small morsel of advice with an investment club that met once a week in the prison chapel. On behalf of the club, Rook was now suing the Whiz for fraud.
Rook took the witness chair, and began his narrative. The usual rules of procedure and evidence were dispensed with so that the truth could be arrived at quickly, whatever form it might take.
“So I go to the Whiz and I ask him what he thinks about ValueNow, a new online company I read about in Forbes,” Rook explained. “It was about to go public, and I liked the idea behind the company. Whiz said he’d check it out for me. I heard nothing. So I went back to him and said, ‘Hey, Whiz, what about ValueNow?’ And he said he thought it was a solid company and the stock would go through the roof.”
“I did not say that,” the Whiz inserted quickly. He was seated across the room, by himself, his arms folded over the chair in front.
“Yes you did.”
“I did not.”
“Anyway, I go back to the club and tell them that Whiz is high on the deal, so we decide we want to buy some stock in ValueNow. But little guys can’t buy because the offering is closed. I go back to Whiz over there and I say, ‘Look, Whiz, you think you could pull some strings with your buddies on Wall Street and get us a few shares of ValueNow?’ And Whiz said he thought he could do that.”
“That’s a lie,” said Whiz.
“Quiet,” said Justice Spicer. “You’ll get your chance.”
“He’s lying,” Whiz said, as if there was a rule against it.
If Whiz had money, you’d never know it, at least not on the inside. His eight-by-twelve cell was bare except for stacks of financial publications. No stereo, fan, books, cigarettes, none of the usual assets acquired by almost everyone else. This only added to the legend. He was considered a miser, a weird little man who saved every penny and was no doubt stashing everything offshore.
“Anyway,” Rook continued, “we decided to gamble by taking a big position in ValueNow. Our strategy was to liquidate our holdings and consolidate.”
“Consolidate?” asked Justice Beech. Rook sounded like a portfolio manager who handled billions.
“Right, consolidate. We borrowed all we could from friends and family, and had close to a thousand bucks.”
“A thousand bucks,” repeated Justice Spicer. Not bad for an inside job. “Then what happened?”
“I told Whiz over there that we were ready to move. Could he get us the stock? This was on a Tuesday. The offering was on a Friday. Whiz said no problem. Said he had a buddy at Goldman Sux or some such place that could take care of us.”
“That’s a lie,” Whiz shot from across the room.
“Anyway, on Wednesday I saw Whiz in the east yard, and I asked him about the stock. He said no problem.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I got a witness.”
“Who?” asked Justice Spicer.
“Picasso.”
Picasso was sitting behind Rook, as were the other six members of the investment club. Picasso reluctantly waved his hand.
“Is that true?” Spicer asked.
“Yep,” Picasso answered. “Rook asked about the stock. Whiz said he would get it. No problem.”
Picasso testified in a lot of cases, and had been caught lying more than most inmates.
“Continue,” Spicer said.
“Anyway, Thursday I couldn’t find Whiz anywhere. He was hiding from me.”
“I was not.”
“Friday, the stock goes public. It was offered at twenty a share, the price we could’ve bought it for if Mr. Wall Street over there had done what he promised. It opened at sixty, spent most of the day at eighty, then closed at seventy. Our plans were to sell it as soon as possible. We could’ve bought fifty shares at twenty, sold them at eighty, and walked away from the deal with three thousand dollars in profits.”
Violence was very rare at Trumble. Three thousand dollars would not get you killed, but some bones might be broken. Whiz had been lucky so far. There’d been no ambush.
“And you think the Whiz owes you these lost profits?” asked ex-Chief Justice Finn Yarber, now plucking his eyebrows.
“Damned right we do. Look, what makes the deal stink even worse is that Whiz bought ValueNow for himself.”
“That’s a damned lie,” Whiz said.
“Language, please,” Justice Beech said. If you wanted to lose a case before the Brethren, just offend Beech with your language.
The rumors that Whiz had bought the stock for himself had been started by Rook and his gang. There was no proof of it, but the story had proved irresistible and had been repeated by most inmates so often that it was now established as fact. It fit so nicely.
“Is that all?” Spicer asked Rook.
Rook had other points he wanted to elaborate on, but the Brethren had no patience with windy litigants. Especially ex-lawyers still reliving their glory days. There were at least five of them at Trumble, and they seemed to be on the docket all the time.
“I guess so,” Rook said.
“What do you have to say?” Spicer asked the Whiz.
Whiz stood and took a few steps toward their table. He glared at his accusers, Rook and his gang of losers. Then he addressed the court. “What’s the burden of proof here?”
Justice Spicer immediately lowered his eyes and waited for help. As a Justice of the Peace, he’d had no legal training. He’d never finished high school, then worked for twenty years in his father’s country store. That’s where the votes came from. Spicer relied on common sense, which was often at odds with the law. Any questions dealing with legal theory would be handled by his two colleagues.
“It’s whatever we say it is,” Justice Beech said, relishing a debate with a stockbroker on the court’s rules of procedure.
“Clear and convincing proof?” asked the Whiz.
“Could be, but not in this case.”
“Beyond a reasonable doubt?”
“Probably not.”
“Preponderance of the evidence?”
“Now you’re getting close.”
“Then, they have no proof,” the Whiz said, waving his hands like a bad actor in a bad TV drama.
“Why don’t you just tell us your side of the story?” said Beech.
“I’d love to. ValueNow was a typical online offering, lots of hype, lots of red ink on the books. Sure Rook came to me, but by the time I could make my calls, the offering was closed. I called a friend who told me you couldn’t get near the stock. Even the big boys were shut out.”
“Now, how does that happen?” asked Justice Yarber.
The room was quiet. The Whiz was talking money, and everyone was listening.
“Happens all the time in IPOs. That’s initial public offerings.”
“We know what an IPO is,” Beech said.
Spicer certainly did not. Didn’t have many of those back in rural Mississippi.
The Whiz relaxed, just a little. He could dazzle them for a moment, win this nuisance of a case, then go back to his cave and ignore them.
“The ValueNow IPO was handled by the investment banking firm of Bakin-Kline, a small outfit in San Francisco. Five million shares were offered. Bakin-Kline basically presold the stock to its preferred customers and friends, so that most big investment firms never had a shot at the stock. Happens all the time.”
The judges and the inmates, even the court jester, hung on every word.
He continued. “It’s silly to think that some disbarred yahoo sitting in prison, reading an old copy of Forbes, can somehow buy a thousand dollars’ worth of ValueNow.”
And at that very moment it did indeed seem very silly. Rook fumed while his club members began quietly blaming him.
“Did you buy any of it?” asked Beech.
“Of course not. I couldn’t get near it. And besides, most of the high-tech and online companies are built with funny money. I stay away from them.”
“What do you prefer?” Beech asked quickly, his curiosity getting the better of him.
“Value. The long haul. I’m in no hurry. Look, this is a bogus case brought by some boys looking for an easy buck.” He waved toward Rook, who was sinking in his chair. The Whiz sounded perfectly believable and legitimate.
Rook’s case was built on hearsay, speculation, and the corroboration of Picasso, a notorious liar.
“You got any witnesses?” Spicer asked.
“I don’t need any,” the Whiz said and took his seat.
Each of the three justices scribbled something on a slip of paper. Deliberations were quick, verdicts instantaneous. Yarber and Beech slid theirs to Spicer, who announced, “By a vote of two to one, we find for the defendant. Case dismissed. Who’s next?”
The vote was actually unanimous, but every verdict was officially two to one. That allowed each of the three a little wiggle room if later confronted.
But the Brethren were well regarded around Trumble. Their decisions were quick and as fair as they could make them. In fact, they were remarkably accurate in light of the shaky testimony they often heard. Spicer had presided over small cases for years, in the back of his family’s country store. He could spot a liar at fifty feet. Beech and Yarber had spent their careers in courtrooms, and had no tolerance for lengthy arguments and delays, the usual tactics.
“That’s all today,” T. Karl reported. “End of docket.”
“Very well. Court is adjourned until next week.”
T. Karl jumped to his feet, his curls again vibrating across his shoulders, and declared, “Court’s adjourned. All rise.”
No one stood, no one moved as the Brethren left the room. Rook and his gang were huddled, no doubt planning their next lawsuit. The Whiz left quickly.
The assistant warden and the guard eased away without being seen. The weekly docket was one of the better shows at Trumble.
….
Note: Above are quotes and excerpts from the book “The Brethren by John Grisham”. If you find it interesting and useful, don’t forget to buy paper books to support the Author and Publisher!
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