Corrupt Judge at Center of John Grisham's THE WHISTLER

The Whistler by John Grisham is a new legal novel that begins with the problem of a corrupt judge and leads to the uncovering of a widespread, entrenched crime syndicate.

The main character is Lacy Stolz, an investigator for the board that oversees Florida judges. When a complaint of judicial misconduct is filed against a female Circuit Court judge, Lacy and her partner, Hugo Hatch, are at first skeptical. The complaint filer is a secretive whistleblower who claims to have a mole contact close to the judge.

As Lacy digs into the case, it looks like the judge is taking payoff money connected to a casino on Indian tribal land. But the corruption spreads much wider than that, and dangerous people involved are willing to use violence to protect themselves.

A cold blooded trap is set for Lacy and Hugo with tragic consequences. The whistleblower himself suddenly disappears. As Lacy's office realizes what they are up against, they are forced to go to the FBI for help.

The Whistler is an entertaining read that is slowed sometimes by in-depth background material. The novel continues John Grisham's exploration of the darker corners of the American legal system.

ESCAPE CLAUSE a Wild Crime Escapade From John Sandford

Escape Clause is an entertaining new crime novel by popular author John Sandford. The novel is the latest in the series that features Minnesota State Police investigator Virgil Flowers. Virgil is a laid back country boy type who would rather be fishing in his boat on some lake instead of chasing criminals. Somehow, he always seems to draw the oddball cases.

This time, two rare tigers have been stolen by someone from the Minnesota Zoo and Virgil is put on the case to recover the animals. Tiger parts are prized in the Chinese drug market for their alleged curative powers. The illegal tiger extracts could be worth over a million dollars. It's feared that the animals will be quickly killed and their valuable parts harvested to be smuggled to China.

Virgil Flowers is racing the clock to track down the tiger thieves. But the trail soon leads to a crazy shootout, the arrival of a family of Armenian thugs, and then murdered bodies start to pile up. The tiger hunt continues to take new twists as Virgil chases leads all over the state.

Escape Clause is a fast reading crime ride seasoned with deadpan dialog humor. This is another wild escapade in the series of crime novels that John Sanford seems to turn out effortlessly.