A Legal Thriller Written in 2012 by Josh Grisham.
*Note- This post continues the writing from the Book Summaries page. Please read for previous details.*
So, we left off with Malcolm wanting to use Rule 35 to his advantage. Well, he did it! Malcolm gave the full story of his old inmate, Quinn Rucker, who confessed to bribing the judge to submit the verdict in his favor. As you can probably guess, odds were not in his favor considering he was in prison with Malcolm. The judge took the bride, sentenced him to jail and kept the cash without any record or proof of it happening. Quinn wanted revenge for the judge’s thievery so he escaped from prison, hid out under a different name, killed off the judge and took his cash. The only proof the FBI had as Malcolm’s testimony and then Quinn’s confession that he repeatedly recanted.
As for Malcolm, once he gave up his side of the story, the prion let him go free, supplied him with plastic surgery, provided him with the reward money of $150,000 and helped him settle in to the witness protection program under the name of Max Bannister. The feds quickly found out that Quinn was tracking Malcolm and wanting revenge by having his brother kill him so there is no testimony against him. Malcolm did not trust the government, considering he was sentenced for ten years even though he was not guilty, and fled from them begging for them to not follow him and draw more attention to himself.
Max finally had the time to meet up with Vanessa, enjoy white sand beaches and commence his secret plan he had all along since years before his freedom. It is clear soon after that Max and Vanessa have had this planned for years. Max sets up a fake production company and targets Nathan Cooley, an ex-inmate that had a brother killed by the DEA. Max, who is unrecognizable from Malcolm, tells Nathan that he is doing a documentary on the DEA’s corrupt system and he is 100% in from the start.
As things progress, Max flies Nathan out on a private jet for a business trip to Miami. On the flight, Max drinks Nathan under the table and then drugs him once he is passed out. When Max awakens, he is in a Jamaican hospital surrounded by cops questioning him about his stash of drugs, a gun from his bag, his fake passport in his pocket and no sign on Max.
Max, after a day had passed, found Nathan in prison and said that there was a huge storm, blamed the pilot on not filling up with more gas, that they had an unexpected landing in Jamaica and that he will try to get him out as soon as possible. Nathan, a white man, was brutally attacked in prison and odds were not in his favor of lasting more than a week in the horrendous conditions of the Jamaican jail. He pleaded Max to go to his house, find a stash of hidden gold in his back yard, send some to bail him out and in return Max could get half of the gold Nathan had.
Well, Max/Malcolm knew that Nathan had this gold since he was actually the one that knew the judge had money hidden in a safe. Quinn was in on the scandal the entire time and played the part of the criminal well. Max recanted his claim of Quinn being the criminal and promised to share with the FBI the true story now that the gold was in his possession.
In the end, Max, Vanessa, Quinn and Dee Ray (Quinn and Vanessa’s brother) all were in on the plan and split the gold… all $8 million of it. The murdered judge actually was given the gold for a case dealing with a huge mining company and Nathan was just a greedy neighbor boy who found out about the stash and wanted it all for himself. It doesn’t state how things ended with Nathan but hinted that he would easily take an American jail sentence over his situation in Jamaica.
This story was great to see how the government works with criminals! I would highly suggest this to many reader out there… which explains why it was under the “popular books” tab.
Share any thoughts you had on this book. I would be glad to discuss it more or supply more details.
The Loyal Bookworm 