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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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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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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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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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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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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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