The Whistler (novel)

The Whistler is a novel written by American author John Grisham. It was released in hardcover, large print paperback, e-book, compact disc audiobook and downloadable audiobook on October 25, 2016.[1] It is a legal thriller about Florida Board on Judicial Conduct investigator Lacy Stoltz.[2]

The Whistler
First edition (US)
AuthorJohn Grisham
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreCrime thriller
PublisherDoubleday (US)
Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
Publication date
October 25, 2016
Pages384 pp (Hardcover 1st edition)
ISBN978-0385541190

The plot centers on the legal and moral problems involved in Native American gaming. The (fictional) Tappacola Nation, a small Native American tribe located in the northern part of Florida, starts a casino in their reservation, giving the tribe members an unprecedented economic affluence and a measure of compensation for their sufferings during the centuries of European settlement, but also opening wide the potential for corruption and involvement with organized crime, up to and including outright murder.

Plot

A mysterious source contacts the (fictional) Florida Board on Judicial Conduct, or BJC,[3] promising information that will reveal the identity and crimes of the most corrupt judge in U.S. history. Lacy Stoltz, the BJC's top investigator, is assigned to the case, and takes her sometime-partner, former college football star Hugo Hatch, with her to St. Augustine to meet the source in person. The source is revealed to be a disgraced lawyer from Pensacola named Ramsey Mix, who has been living out of his boat for several years.

Mix reveals that the corrupt judge is Claudia McDover of Florida's 24th Circuit. Over the course of almost two decades, McDover has aided the local Coast Mafia in their illicit operation of a casino in partnership with the Tappacola Indian Nation. Aside from skimming money from the casino, the Coast Mafia has also engaged in embezzlement and black-market dealings through real estate developments, with any legal problems smoothed over by McDover in exchange for cash payments and lucrative condominium deals. The Mafia also sanctioned the murder of Son Razko, a prominent anti-casino member of the Tappacola Nation, with McDover then bringing false charges against his close ally Junior Mace and sending him to prison. Mix has been given this information by an intermediary representing an unknown mole close to McDover.

When Stoltz and Hatch begin an investigation, the leader of the Coast Mafia, Vonn Dubose, decides to retaliate. Stoltz and Hatch are lured to a remote part of the Tappacola reservation by a tribal member claiming to be a source. Driving away from the uneventful meeting, the duo are deliberately struck head-on by a truck. Hatch is killed and Stoltz is badly injured. This escalation convinces the director of the BJC, Michael Geismar, to ask for help from the FBI. However, the up-and-coming mob lieutenant tasked with killing Hatch and Stoltz left behind evidence at the crime scene and was caught on video at a nearby convenience store. Aided by this evidence and with help from a former Tappacola Nation constable, BJC and FBI investigators find Hatch's killers and offer them reduced sentences in exchange for information against those higher up in the Coast Mafia.

As their operation begins to unravel, Dubose and McDover realize there is a leak. Suspicion lands on McDover's longtime court recorder, JoHelen Hooper, who is in fact Mix's source. Hooper realizes that she's been compromised and hides in a cheap motel near Panama City Beach, but she is tracked there by a Coast Mafia hitman. With Stoltz's help, she manages to evade the hitman. Both women retreat to a lakeside cabin in North Carolina for safety with the help of Stoltz's brother while the FBI takes Dubose and McDover into custody.

TV adaptation

On January 19, 2021, Entertainment One was set to produce the one-hour TV series for TNT.[4]

See also

References
  1. "The Whistler". Random House. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  2. Maslin, Janet (October 26, 2016). "Review: In John Grisham's 'The Whistler,' a Serious Woman and Serious Crime". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  3. In Florida reports of misconduct by judges are made to the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission.
  4. Otterson, Joe (January 19, 2021). "John Grisham's 'The Whistler' in the Works at TNT; TBS Orders Chris Romano, Hilary Winston Pilots (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
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