50 pages • 1 hour read
John GrishamThe Racketeer
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Malcolm introduces Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. According to Rule 35, if an inmate can solve another federal crime, the inmate’s sentence may be commuted and the prisoner released. The feds have come back to talk to Malcolm. This time, Victor Westlake is in charge. He agrees to make a deal with Malcolm. In the terms of the deal, Malcolm will remain in prison until the FBI secures an indictment against whomever he names. After that, Malcolm will be freed, presented with a new face and identity, and awarded the $150,000 reward money.
Chapter 12 Summary
When all the agreements have been signed, Malcolm provides the name of the murderer: Quinn Rucker. Malcolm met Quinn at Frostburg, and they became friends. Quinn had escaped from the prison and disappeared three months before the narrative present. Malcolm relates that Quinn came from a family of drug dealers. One of Quinn’s cousins was arrested on a drug-trafficking charge after an illegal search. Quinn’s family paid Judge Fawcett half a million dollars to exclude the results of the search from the evidence in the trial. The judge took the money but reneged on the deal, allowing the evidence from the search to be entered. Quinn had told Malcolm that he was going to kill the judge and get back the money. Malcolm tells the FBI that Quinn is probably hiding out with a cousin who owns a club.
Chapter 13 Summary
Six hours after Malcolm gives them Quinn’s name, two FBI agents arrest Quinn Rucker at the club. Upon being questioned, Quinn admits that when he escaped from Frostburg, he was met by an accomplice who drove him away. He has since been living in a rented mobile home under the name of Jackie Todd. Searching the mobile home, the FBI finds a Smith & Wesson .38, which they assume to be the same gun that killed the judge and his mistress. They also find a vehicle title for a 2008 Hummer purchased two days after the judge’s murder in Roanoke—near the judge’s cabin. In a mini-storage unit leased in Jackie Todd’s name, they find some old clothes, a pair of muddy boots, another gun, and a box of cash. At the same time, the computer system of the National Crime Information Center finds a reference to a Jackie Todd who was arrested for drunkenness in Roanoke around the time of the killing.
FBI Agents Pankovits and Delocke interrogate Quinn, who appears shocked to learn that they have already searched his home and found the guns, the money, and the bill of sale for the car. Quinn says, “Maybe I need a lawyer” (99).
Chapter 14 Summary
Malcolm explains that the two agents are skirting the law. Quinn didn’t explicitly ask for a lawyer. The word “maybe” allows some maneuvering room. Malcolm relates that FBI agents have a repertoire of dirty tricks allowed by the US Supreme Court, but they depend on careful adherence to the letter of the law. Quinn has two brothers and two sisters. One sister doesn’t have contact with the family. The youngest brother, Dee Ray, handles finance but stays away from the dangerous parts of the business. The FBI arrests Dee Ray. They handcuff him, take pictures of him surrounded by FBI agents, and let him go.
Agents Pankovits and Delocke show Quinn the photo of Dee Ray handcuffed and surrounded by agents and claim that Dee Ray is telling them everything. Quinn doesn’t believe them. They tell him they have a ballistics report showing that his .38 is the gun used to kill the judge, and they have a footprint that matches the boots they found in the storage unit. Neither of these claims is true, but they assume that Quinn has no way of knowing that. They also have two witnesses placing Quinn in the vicinity of the judge’s cabin at the time of the murder. At this point, Quinn refuses to speak further.
Chapter 15 Summary
Most of what the agents have told Quinn about the investigation is a lie. They now tell Quinn that he will be indicted on racketeering charges—that they will treat his murder of the judge as an organized-crime hit, and several of Quinn’s relations will be included in the charge.
At that, Quinn straightens up, saying, “Bannister, Bannister, Bannister” (116). The agents ask what he is talking about, and Quinn says that Bannister is a crooked lawyer who has ratted Quinn out. The agents quickly draw the conversation back to the present, warning Quinn that his brothers are in custody and telling the FBI everything they know. The only way for Quinn to save himself is to confess. Quinn finally gives in and confesses everything.
Chapter 16 Summary
Back in Frostburg, Malcolm sees a news article announcing the arrest of a suspect in the judge’s killing. Malcolm’s narration states that he and Quinn met two years earlier and quickly became friends. Malcolm describes Quinn as genuine and charismatic, with a tendency to display dramatic mood swings.
Malcolm receives his monthly visit from his father and wonders if they will ever meet again. Malcolm intends to be a free man soon, and he won’t be looking back.
Chapter 17 Summary
Quinn is indicted for the judge’s murder. Agent Hanski tells Malcolm that he is ostensibly being transferred to a medium-security prison and will get lost in the prison system. In reality, as soon as he sets foot outside of Frostburg, he becomes a free man. They tell him that Quinn has figured out that Malcolm was the one to cast suspicion upon him, which means that Quinn will know that Malcolm is free, and his family will be looking for Malcolm.
Once out of sight of the prison, the marshals remove Malcolm’s restraints. His new name will be Max Reed Baldwin. The marshals act friendly and congenial, as if they and Malcolm are friends, all on the same side. Malcolm plays along but secretly resents it.
Chapter 18 Summary
Malcolm decides that Florida will be his new home. In a hotel room, he goes over Quinn’s indictment and sees that so far, all the FBI’s evidence is circumstantial. The only really solid thing they have is Quinn’s confession.
Chapter 19 Summary
While Malcolm starts his new life, Quinn recants his confession, claiming that he was coerced and that he asked for a lawyer and was refused.
Chapters 20 Summary
Malcolm’s next step is plastic surgery to give him a new face. While he recovers from surgery, Quinn is arraigned. Quinn pleads not guilty. Dee Ray visits him at the jail, and they have a conversation in which Quinn tells Dee Ray that Malcolm is the witness who turned him in. Dee Ray promise to deal with Malcolm.
Chapter 21 Summary
Meanwhile, Malcolm is recovering from surgery. His narration describes the woman with whom he is in love. Her name is Vanessa Young. He saw her for the first time at Frostburg when she was visiting her brother. Malcolm describes the brother as someone he knew and liked, leaving out the fact that the brother is Quinn Rucker. Malcolm has written Vanessa letters from prison, but she didn’t seem to return his feelings. Now that he is free, he writes her a letter baring his feelings and begging her to see him. Once Malcolm has recovered from surgery, the marshals escort him to his new home in Jacksonville, Florida.
Chapters 11-21 Analysis
With Chapter 11, Grisham significantly accelerates the pacing of the plot, and the resulting tension leads to suspense that is heightened even further when Malcolm learns that his location has been exposed and he must take extreme measures to hide from Quinn’s family. Throughout this process, Malcolm’s narration reveals some niggling inconsistencies in his character. For example, despite his ostensible plan to set FBI agents loose on Quinn for the murder of Judge Fawcett, he still makes it a point to emphasize his friendship with Quinn, even going as far as to call him the best friend he ever made at Frostburg. Combined with the fact that he turns on Quinn without hesitation, this aspect of the story raises a multitude of questions about Malcolm’s reliability as a narrator, and it will take a particularly sharp-eyed reader to spot the ongoing inconsistencies in the plot that foreshadow Malcolm’s true game before it is fully revealed toward the end of the novel. Additional inconsistencies appear when Malcolm displays considerable empathy while describing the legal plight of the Carters, and his interest in pursuing their incompetent lawyer indicates that he has a strong sense of justice. However, his willingness to turn on his “friend” Quinn makes him appear cold and Machiavellian, and this incongruity raises questions about the nature of this so-called friendship, which may only have been a friendship of convenience rather than a genuine fellowship. On the other hand, if Quinn has in fact tortured and murdered the judge and his mistress, then Malcolm’s description of Quinn as a friend would also be inconsistent with his apparent sense of justice. Either way, Grisham’s protagonist is an enigma, but the author is clearly working to plant specific clues that will bring the full vision of the narrative to fruition by the end of the novel. Accordingly, while Malcolm’s passing reference to Quinn’s two sisters appears insignificant, this information will prove to be absolutely crucial to fully understanding the scope of The Long Con that Malcolm is engineering. The mention of the sisters will make more sense later when Vanessa enters the picture and is revealed to be the sister who is estranged from the family. In addition, it will be revealed that Quinn’s brother Dee Ray is the confederate who helped Quinn escape from Frostburg.
When Quinn leaps to the conclusion that Malcolm turned him in, it appears to his interrogators to be a spontaneous realization, but this moment also marks a critical turning point in the story, for the apparent ease with which Quinn makes the connection is designed to hint that Malcolm and Quinn may be working together. Consequently, every piece of information that Malcolm’s narrative has volunteered must now be called into question and reexamined from different angles in order to discern the true direction of Grisham’s story. With the possibility established that Malcolm and Quinn are working together, the author continues to employ deliberate misdirection in order to sow confusion and heighten suspense. For example, Malcolm’s insistence on changing his appearance is superficially about his fear of being discovered by Quinn’s family. Only later is it revealed that he must change his appearance to entrap the real killer, Nathan Cooley, because he has already met Nathan once before. Other examples of misdirection include Malcolm’s review of Quinn’s indictment; from one angle, the scene can be interpreted as an indicator that Malcolm is checking to be sure the indictment is watertight lest Quinn come after him. However, on a second reading of the novel, it becomes apparent Malcolm is actually satisfying himself that his plan is proceeding as he intended. Yet another misdirection appears when Quinn tells Dee Ray about Malcolm. It first appears that Quinn is calling for a hit on Malcolm, but it will later become evident that Dee Ray and Quinn have been playing out a scripted scene to fool an audience of FBI auditors. Their object is to reinforce the appearance that Quinn and Malcolm are in opposition and lay the groundwork for the later “revelation” that Quinn’s family has found Malcolm. In fact, the scene was planned years previously.
With the first reference to Vanessa, Malcolm is once again withholding information from the narrative. He describes Vanessa as the sister of a friend without mentioning that the friend is Quinn: the closest friend he ever had. He also withholds their full history, implying that she is a virtual stranger. Later, however, the full extent of their relationship will emerge as more layers of the story unfold. The ambiguity in his description of their relationship implies as well that Malcolm may be somewhat foolish and delusional about a nonexistent relationship.
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