The Brethren - John Grisham

Housed at Trumble, a minimum security federal prison, are three former judges who call themselves The Brethren. They meet each day in the law library where they write briefs, handle cases for other inmates, and spend hours hatching schemes to make money. Then, when one of their scams goes awry and ensnares an innocent man with dangerous friends, The Brethren's days of quietly marking time are over.

nThey call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. nOne was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits.

And the third, for a career-ending drunken joyride. n nMeeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong. n nOr they can use their time in prison to get very rich -- very fast.

And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam ... while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt. n nA bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grips -- and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings.

For the Brethren, the timing couldn't be better. Because they've just found the perfect victim...n