We've all seen no end of John Grisham books turned into films with Harrison Ford in them. They are half decent films, so I thought I'd give one of his books a go - especially as tesco are selling them at £3.84 a pop. Well, cue great disappointment. First, the quality of writing is close to appalling, may be not in content but in style. Its real tabloid stuff, so easy to read, but... perhaps it's becuase the publisher couldn't even be bothered to run a UK spell checker over it so we get "gray" and "...or" etc. And it is full slang - not in the speech, but in the descriptive text. Nonetheless he does describe ...  Read the complete review

I first got into Grisham a few years ago and I am slowly but surely getting through his books. The ones I have read have normally been quite pacey and a can't put down type of book due to the complex stories and thrilling action. For those of you that have never touched a Grisham book (are there such people?), he specialises in law stories. So the plots in a basic format tend to be good lawyer fighting justice or seeking fufillment or bad lawyer trying to work the system. The Brethren is somewhat different. I don't know quite what it is really.... there still is a fair amount of pace in the story....it just seems to lack lustre. Now this ...  Read the complete review

I'll start by saying that I am not a reader and this is the first book I've picked up in years: I saw it on my mother-in-law's bookshelf and asked to borrow it. I thought I'd give it a go because it's my genre, it's not available as a film and is written by a lawyer (I myself have studied law). When I started out I expected that I would read a couple of chapters then get bored/lured by electronic entertainment...TV, Xbox, Wii and so on. This book is about three ex-judges (the Brethren) doing porridge in a minimum security prison. These judges did not know each other previously but quickly became acquainted and the story starts after they have served some time, ...  Read the complete review

After waiting for The Brethren for many months, I was slightly disappointed with it as a whole. Grisham has become a staple of my reading not because he writes great novels, but because he writes readable books that aren't very challenging to ones points of view and he writes them frequently which allows me periodic breaks from more serious reading. This book is almost he perfect example. An easily told tale that is fast paced and not at all thought provoking. I'm glad he broke his formula after Street Lawyer and the last two books have been definite improvements. While not nearly the book A Time to Kill is, its clearly better than his ...  Read the complete review

If you can get past the first 50 tedious and somewhat confusing pages you will be rewarded with a decent plot and Grishams inimitable style. I have read all of JG's work and seen all of the film adaptations to boot, so it is safe to say that I am a bit of a fan of his writing. This book seems to break the mould of his usual courtroom drama's and to me this is a shame as these are what he does best. There are two storys interwoven in the novel - one of Aaron Lake's presidential campaign and the other being three judges ( The Brethren) locked up in a minimal security prison who are blackmailing gay guys who have answered their personal ad and ...  Read the complete review