The Brethren [Hardcover]

Trumble is a minimum-security federal prison, a "camp," home to the usual assortment of relatively harmless criminals--drug dealers, bank robbers, swindlers, embezzlers, tax evaders, two Wall Street crooks, one doctor, at least five lawyers.

And three former judges who call themselves the Brethren: one from Texas, one from California, and one from Mississippi. They meet each day in the law library, their turf at Trumble, where they write briefs, handle cases for other inmates, practice law without a license, and sometimes dispense jailhouse justice. And they spend hours writing letters. They are fine-tuning a mail scam, and it's starting to really work. The money is pouring in.

Then their little scam goes awry. It ensnares the wrong victim, a powerful man on the outside, a man with dangerous friends, and the Brethren's days of quietly marking time are over."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 GuildJohn Grisham is the author ofThe Testament,The Street Lawyer,The Partner,The Runaway Jury,The Rainmaker,The Chamber,The Client,The Pelican Brief,The Firm, andA Time to Kill.FOR THE WEEKLY DOCKET the court jester wore his standard garb of well-used and deeply faded maroon pajamas and lavender terry-cl3¦