The Whistler.

• Author: Mandell, David
• Position: Book review

The Whistler

by John Grisham

John Grisham visits Florida in The Whistler. The book takes readers on a wild ride through the state, and it starts fast. Two lawyers for the Florida Bureau of Judicial Conduct, Lacy Stoltz and Hugo Hatch, leave Tallahassee to meet a mysterious complainant who boasts that he has explosive information. Unlike typical complaints from bitter litigants, this may shake the judiciary. He brings Stoltz aboard his boat in St. Augustine and starts. Once a Pensacola lawyer, he invested in questionable deals, becoming ensnared in a RICO case ending in a prison term. Reinstated as a lawyer with a new name, Greg Myers, he has a remarkable story. A gang has manipulated a small Native tribe, the Tappacola, into building a lucrative casino. The casino's opponents met a gruesome fate. Son Razko was murdered. His ally, Junior Mace, sits on death row, convicted of murder. Every legal challenge to the casino failed and eminent domain cases seizing land for an access road were all decided against the owners.

Myers tells Stoltz that the cases have one common element--presiding judge, Claudia F. McDover. Myers says that in return for siding with casino proponents and putting Junior Mace on death row, McDover has become rich. Myers claims that he has a reliable source but cannot provide a name. Their motive is not pure. They seek a reward under the whistle blower statute. Stoltz and Hatch return to Tallahassee and start to investigate. Under strict time limits, two lawyers with no training as criminal detectives must solve several mysteries. Is an innocent man on death row? Has a sitting judge been...