I will add my voice to those whose dwindling interest in Grisham was rekindled with the 2012 novel The Racketeer. And although many who had positive things to say about this novel likened it to Grisham's early works, I thought this novel was unique for Grisham. It seemed to me that Grisham not only wrote tongue-in-cheek in this novel, there was a broad satirical element I don't remember Grisham displaying before... it reminded me of the way the movie "Inglorious Bastards" turned reality on its head while it chuckled up its sleeve. 
 There may be vague and ambiguous SPOILERS beyond this point, but if you're like me, you'll forget most of what I mention anyway (which won't be specific enough to spoil much, I wouldn't think) before you read the novel. 
 Many reviewers dismissed the book because of (or were belatedly disappointed by) the Author's Note appended to the novel, where Grisham announces that "Almost nothing in the previous 340-odd pages is based on reality. Research, hardly a priority, was rarely called upon." And whether Grisham's actual statistics were accurate or not, the truth is we are the world's biggest jailers with 2.5 million people imprisoned on any given day in the United States, and with over 11 million shuffled through the system annually. I don't remember where I found those numbers, try Googling it. It's there. I just figured that by this point in his career, Grisham has all these statistics simply floating around in the back of his head and can grab them whenever he needs them, and the hell with citations. 
 But no, almost nothing in the story was based on reality, because what we have here is a story about a white collar crime committed tangentially by a smart young lawyer whom the FBI eventually utilizes (and is double-crossed by) as an informant in a Federal investigation... who happens to be black. What's wrong with this picture? Besides the fact that our prison and justice system would never allow a young black man to negotiate his way out of a paper bag from jail. You will not find any circumstances in reality where clever African Americans operating from their elite low-security prison "camp" (which allows them to simply walk off the grounds and away from incarceration) outsmart white-dominated Federal agencies and their agents. I also doubt there is any known record of jailed blacks successfully negotiating with and manipulating Federal agents for impunity as well as remuneration in exchange for their cooperation in an investigation. Not in these United States, not in this decade. What did feel very real, however, was the process of arrest and detention, which might be far more familiar to African American males than to most white-collar Caucasian professionals. 
 I was delighted with the way Grisham turned the world inside out and created an African American hero/anti-hero who could give Jason Bourne a run for his money. This is revisionist story-telling, and it served Grisham's agenda by exposing the failings of the present prison system (not to mention the justice system), in a very effective way. I won't give away the ending, because it is too perfect. 
 Grisham's disclaimer at the end of the story was the perfect satirical note with which to end this piece of fascinating fiction.