We last met Lacy Stoltz, an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct, in Grisham’s The Whistler.
She is still investigating complaints of improper conduct by judges in Florida. She’s tired of the job and is thinking of finding a new one.
Then she’s approached by Jeri Crosby, a woman who claims a judge killed her father 22 years ago. And she believes he was the second of six victims.
Jeri’s father had been a well-loved law professor who could be very tough on his students. A student with an arrogant attitude and a habit of showing up for class unprepared took offense at being dressed down several times and withdrew from law school. He sent letters complaining about the professor to alumni, politicians, and other professors, and entered a mental health facility, supposedly for a nervous breakdown caused by his law professor. Ultimately, he recovered and finished his training at another law school.
But he continued to hold a grudge against the professor. And then Jeri’s father was murdered.
Jeri is terrified that she’s being surveilled, but over the course of several meetings, she reveals to Lacy all the victims she’s identified, killed in the same way: blunt force trauma, then asphyxiation with a nylon rope tied off in a double clove hitch. She explains what she believes the connection between the victims and the student-now-judge is, and what the motivation for each murder is. She has no evidence, yet her stories are compelling.
Lacy doesn’t know how her board can help. They certainly don’t have the ability to investigate murders in six different states, especially since all of the cases have been classified as cold in their jurisdictions. But Jeri is persistent, sure that if they don’t stop the murderous judge, he’ll kill again.
And then, Lacy is appointed interim director of her office. Jeri officially files her complaint under a pseudonym, and Lacy and two assistants begin their investigation.
This book had me at the edge of my seat all the way through. Though Lacy is committed to being as surreptitious as possible, Jeri does something stupid that alerts the judge that someone has connected him to some of his murders. The judge is very intelligent, and he soon identifies the people on his trail. Will they stop him–or die trying?
This is another of Grisham’s best legal thrillers.
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