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The Brethren

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The Brethren

By: John Grisham
Narrated by: Frank Muller
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About this listen

A classic legal thriller from the master of the genre.

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.

©2000 Belfry Holdings, Inc. (P)2000 Random House, LLC Crime Thrillers Thriller Thriller & Suspense Crime Law Fiction Suspense

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Critic reviews

“Gripping … engaging and fast-paced … will hook you from the first page and won’t let you go.” (New York Post)
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John Grisham has not left me disappointed as this is another thrilling masterpiece. Three judges are jailed and this story is about a hustle they commit in prison which proves to be quite embarrassing to some important people.

Thrilling Story

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This narrator has the best voice ever and brings a touch of humour to even serious books. Fantastic story well written and well read.

Brilliant

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I have read and listened to so many JG titles. this is amongst my favorites

the best author

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Great, great read, second time of reading. Initially thought the readers voice might be an irritant, but its well read.

One of his best books

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Disappointed with the ending, wanted some justice I think or some consequences for their actions. very well read.

Good story, very good the way the two stories ran.

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I was really enjoying the story but it didn't so much end as abruptly stop part way through. There were two parallel threads, one of which had partial closure but the other (the more interesting one, in my opinion) had no resolution at all. Although the narrator has an odd cadence, I found him quite relaxing to listen to.

Interesting, but unsatisfying

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Firstly I have to say that John Grisham has always entertained me and as an American author is one of the few that I read. This was also my first listen to Frank Muller, who I will deal with first. Right from the first syllable I did not like his delivery at all, I found it very slow and lumbering, with an annoying habit of overstressing certain words and underpinning it all with a heavy accent that did little to make me want to listen. I managed to make it slightly less annoying by speeding him up which made him a lot easier on the ear. After a hundred pages or so I got used to him and by the end of the book was beginning to enjoy, but I would think hard again about "buying" anything further if he was the narrator.

Moving on to the book itself I read a couple of very critical reviews of the story and therefore started the book not expecting a lot. For my part I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the complexities of a plot trying and succeeding in laying a rich story of three rather corrupt judges engineering the perfect crime from a prison cell through to the corruption that we all know takes place but hope that doesn't sully the USA's election machine. There is some imaginative and believable detail on how that machine can be manipulated by those that have the power and influence to do so. Further it underlines the lengths that those of influence and power will go to in protecting their interests.

The story essentially runs two plots which are bought together in a very clever way and as the reader it is difficult to avoid the feeling that the story paints a rich and very sick picture of the American power machine at its very worst.

I came away from the book feeling that all those involved were equally as bad as each other, and a certain appreciation of the corruption that poisons a nations systems of government, a corruption that clearly has no boundaries. Yet worse still that corruption lies nestled within a clandestine power structure that has the financial resources and the ability to keep all of that dirty laundry under a veil of secrecy that could achieve whatever it wants without any fear of reprisal.

I started this review by suggesting that there was more than a little undeserved "negative" criticism of the book, and maybe having now read the book I might be bold enough to suggest it is nearer to the truth than many would like it to be.

All I can say is read it and come to your own conclusion.

My conclusion........ well I put my grain of belief right where it belongs!

On the beach of thoroughly enjoyable......

It kept me entertained !

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The narrators voice was not to my liking, very breathy and over exaggerated. Story was good though

Good story, awful narrator

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A group of three judges make up the Brethren, the in-house legal team in a posh, low security prison. They are working up a new scheme where they fleece innocent gay men, but what has that got to do with the latest presidential campaign?

Some People Get It Too Easy

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As mentioned by a few reviewers, the narrator is quite distinctive. I hadn't heard him before and it took a while to warm to his sometimes whispered, sarcastic delivery (at first I thought him reminiscent of Jim Carey in Ace Ventura!). But as the farcical elements of the story unfolds the style makes complete sense. Turns out the narrator is known as a legend in the Audiobook world!

The story itself is a little different to Grisham's usual "virtuous lawyer Vs the world" story and I really enjoyed it. I'm working through them in no particular order and this one is a highlight.

A darkly funnier Grisham novel

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