The Racketeer

The Racketeer is John Grisham’s 30th book. It debuted at the top of the New York Times bestseller list in November 2012. John Grisham has twice won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and also received the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. He has written over 35 bestsellers. Eight of his novels have been adapted for film, and one, The Firm, spawned a 2012 television series that takes place 10 years after the original story. Overall, his books have sold 300 million copies, and he is one of only three authors whose books have sold at least 2 million copies on their first printing.

John Grisham was born in 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, but grew up in Mississippi, graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981, and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990. In addition to writing legal thrillers, he also serves on the board of the Innocence Project, which is dedicated to identifying and freeing those who were wrongfully convicted. His work on the Innocence Project confirmed his opposition to the death penalty, since he is well aware of the number of wrongful convictions in the US judicial system.