The President of the United States has nominated Neil Gorsuch for The Supreme Court yesterday (1st February 2017). It is known that the composition of The Supreme Court will have far reaching effects on public and private life across the nation. The law and justice affect everyone, so practitioners in this field have to be beyond reproach.
John Grisham (http://www.jgrisham.com/) has provided another cracking tale based on justice in America. The summary is as follows. Judges are expected 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 can happen.
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 sizeable 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 and deadly. Will justice be done?
We can only hope that such goings-on will not besmirch the US legal system during the Trump Presidency.
Enquire at your local library. See if this legal thriller is in stock by consulting the online catalogue at https://www.sllclibrary.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/OPAC/BSEARCH
384 pages in Hodder & Stoughton
First published 2016
ISBN 978-1444791105
John Grisham