DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

SABBAVARAM, VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

PROJECT TITLE

BOOK REVIEW
THE WHISTLER BY JOHN GRISHAM

SUBJECT
ENGLISH

NAME OF THE FACULTY

MS. BEENA PUNJABI

Name of the Candidate: SURYA CHANDRA

Roll No.: 19LLB079

Semester: 1ST SEMESTER

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to put forward my sincere appreciation to our beloved teacher MS.Beena Punjabi
ma’am for providing me with the wonderful opportunity of having “Book review on The
Whistler by John Grisham” as my project. I bestowed my complete attention on this project
and did this project to the best of my efforts in order to elucidate and present the project in a
lucid way.

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 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………..
OVERVIEW……………………………………………………………...
SUMMARY………………………………………………………………
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………..
CRITICAL COMMENT…………………………………………………

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 INTRODUCTION

The Whistler is a novel written by John Grisham, an American author. It was released on
October 25, 2016 in hardcover, large print paperback, e-book, compact audiobook and
downloadable audiobook. It is a legal thriller about the Florida Board on investigator Lacy
Stoltz on Judicial Conduct.

Author-------------------------------- John Grisham

Country------------------------------- United States
Language----------------------------- English
Genre---------------------------------- Crime Thriller
Publisher----------------------------- Doubleday
First published----------------------- Oct 25, 2016

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 OVERVIEW

"The Whistler," this time involving a judge, is another ambitious look at corruption. The
story begins with two investigators, Lacy Stoltz and Hugo Hatch, who work on Judicial
Conduct for the Florida Board, who are policing misconduct in the judiciary. A
whistleblower, a disbarred lawyer, approaches them, asking if they want to investigate "the
most corrupt judge in American jurisprudence history."
He leads them to a Florida Panhandle Native American casino that takes half a billion dollars
a year in money and a ruthless gangster that the Native Americans are terrified of. When
some tribe members opposed the casino, they were killed by the gangster. Today he shares
the income with the members of the tribe and they are all shielded by a corrupt state judge
from legal challenges. The gangster takes a briefcase with $250,000 in cash every month to
the judge; this has been going on for 11 years. The FBI shows no interest in the crooked
casino, busy with its investigation of terrorists. Therefore, the two investigators proceed on
their own, knowing that their investigation may be dangerous. "We are not gun police," says
Lacy. "We are subpoena attorneys." Her concern is well-founded. One person will soon be
killed, one person will be badly injured and another will be missing. We encounter a death
row Native American who was convicted on perjured testimony of murder. The FBI
eventually comes into the case, and with one of the agents, Lacy, who is 36, single and
attractive, enjoys a cautious romance.

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 SUMMARY

In John Grisham's The Whistler, a crooked lawyer, robbery from an Indian casino, a fatal car
crash, and missing witnesses collide. Lacy Stoltz, a worker with the Judicial Conduct Board,
got more than she had been bargaining for when she accepted the invitation to prosecute what
a source in American history considered the most corrupt judge. The novel discusses the
simplicity of manipulating Indian reservations ' sovereign governments as well as how money
can be used as an incentive to encourage people to engage in illegal activity.

Lacy and her husband, Hugo Hatch, travelled to St. Augustine to meet with Circuit Court
Judge Claudia McDover's Greg Myers, a man who wanted to file a formal complaint. He and
two other individuals, including a mole who worked with McDover, claimed McDover had
purchased condos in Indian territory as bribes for their interest in building a casino. In
addition to being given apartments, McDover made a lot of money from her portion of funds
stolen from the casino by Vonn Dubose, the leader of a group known as the Coast Mafia.

Not far from their investigation, Lacy and Hugo were led to the reservation where a man who
wanted to speak to them about the casino's fraud was found at the casino. Because of being
informed by an informant, a Dodge Ram struck Lacy and Hugo head-on, injuring Lacy badly
and killing Hugo. Though tragic, the first real break in the case came through this wreck
when investigators were able to identify the truck driver who hit Lacy's car.

With the help of the FBI, Lacy's initial investigation leads to a witness being discovered
embedded in the gang of Dubose. Testimony breaks the open case and both the dirty judge
and all five major members of Dubose's gang are arrested.

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The Florida Board on Judicial Conduct (BJC) is contacted by a mysterious source promising
information to reveal the identity and crimes of the most corrupt judge in U.S. history.
Investigator Lacy Stoltz is assigned to the case and takes her partner Hugo Hatch to meet the
source in person with her to St. Augustine, Florida. It is revealed that the source is a
disgraced Pensacola lawyer called Ramsey Mix.

Mix reveals that Claudia McDover of the 24th Circuit of Florida is the crooked judge. Judge
McDover has supported the local Coast Mafia in their plan over the course of nearly two
decades to build a casino in conjunction with the Tappacola Indian Nation. In addition to
skimming money from the casino, the Coast Mafia was also responsible for many nearby
property developments, with any legal problems being smoothed up by McDover in exchange
for cash payments and condominiums

Moreover, the Coast Mafia has staged the murder of Son Razko, a prominent Tappacola
Nation anti-casino member, and McDover has falsely convicted the crime's right-hand man,
Junior Mace. An informant representing an unidentified "mole" near McDover sent this data
to Mix.

The Coast Mafia chief, Vonn Dubose, wants to retaliate when Stoltz and Hatch start an
investigation. Stoltz and Hatch are lured by a tribal member claiming to be a source to a rural
part of the Tappacola Reserve. The couple were purposely hit head-on by a truck driving
away from the unincidental encounter. Hatch is killed and Stoltz is seriously wounded.

This escalation persuades the BJC boss, Michael Geismar, to ask the FBI for assistance. The
up-and-coming lieutenant charged with killing Hatch and Stoltz, however, left evidence
behind at the crime scene and was caught in a convenience store nearby on camera. BJC and
FBI investigators, assisted by this evidence and a former constable of the Tappacola Nation,
find the killers of Hatch and offer them reduced sentences in exchange for information
against those in the Coast Mafia.

Dubose and McDover discover that there is a leak as their plan begins to unravel. Suspicion
lands on the court recorder of McDover, JoHelen Hooper, who is actually the source of Mix.
Realizing her threat, Hooper is hiding on Panama City Beach in a cheap hotel, but a Coast
Mafia hitman is tracking her there. She manages to evade the hitman with the help of Stoltz.
The women flee for safety to a lakeside cabin in North Carolina, while Dubose and McDover
are arrested by the FBI.

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 CONCLUSION

We expect our judges to be honest and wise. Their integrity and impartiality are the bedrock
of the entire judicial system. We trust them to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all
litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the orderly and efficient flow of
justice.
But what happens when a judge bends the law or takes a bribe? It’s rare, but it happens.
Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She is a lawyer, not
a cop, and it is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine
years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not
corruption.
But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in
business with a new identity. He now goes by the name Greg Myers, and he claims to know
of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And
not just crooked judges in Florida. All judges, from all states, and throughout U.S. history.
What’s the source of the ill-gotten gains? It seems the judge was secretly involved with the
construction of a large casino on Native American land. The Coast Mafia financed the casino
and is now helping itself to a sizable skim of each month’s cash. The judge is getting a cut
and looking the other way. It’s a sweet deal: Everyone is making money.
But now Greg wants to put a stop to it. His only client is a person who knows the truth and
wants to blow the whistle and collect millions under Florida law. Greg files a complaint with
the Board on Judicial Conduct, and the case is assigned to Lacy Stoltz, who immediately
suspects that this one could be dangerous.
Dangerous is one thing. Deadly is something else.

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 CRITICAL COMMENT

While "The Whistler" reads as first-rate fiction, it takes on the feeling of a documentary as it
unfolds in great detail the complicated crime of −Grisham. Inundated with cash, the Native
Americans are facing unforeseen dangers. The gangster, who went from dealing with drugs to
running a criminal empire, considers himself to be untouchable. With her ungodly riches, the
judge glorifies:
"She went to her vault and spent a few moments admiring her' assets,' goodies she had
collected for so long that she now thought she deserved them. In small, portable, fireproof
safes, cash and diamonds. Locked, jewellery-filled steel cabinets, rare coins, gold antique
goblets, cups, and flatware. It was all purchased by casino money, skillfully cleaned.