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 22-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
Quinn’s lawyer, Dusty Shiver, challenges Quinn’s confession on the grounds of coercion and deception. While FBI Director Victor Westlake does have a video recording of the interrogation that shows some breaches of the rules by the interrogating agents, he has no intention of showing it. The agents illegally threatened Quinn with the death penalty, but the agents have also signed an affidavit saying that they didn’t do so. They also lied to Quinn about a number of other things, but lying is permissible in an interrogation. The prosecutor asks Victor Westlake if there are any other irregularities in the interrogation. Westlake lies, claiming there were none, although no one in the room believes him or cares. The important thing is that the confession must be solid, since apart from Malcolm, it is the only evidence that isn’t purely circumstantial.
Chapters 23 Summary
Malcolm sends a letter to his father explaining that he has been transferred to a high-security prison and won’t be able to see him for several months. Malcolm begins to make references to plans that call for evading the supervision of the marshals. He begins moving his reward money for turning in Quinn to three different banks, and he sets up an LLC called Skelter Films.
Malcolm meets with the FBI and learns that Quinn’s trial is set for October 10: four months away. The evidence is still entirely circumstantial, and Malcolm’s evidence may be the only thing that could secure a conviction. Meanwhile, Quinn is moody and sometimes doesn’t speak for days. Malcolm agrees that Quinn was always prone to mood swings. Malcolm tries to imagine appearing in a courtroom testifying against Quinn, but he seriously doubts that it will happen.
Chapter 24 Summary
Malcolm receives a new passport and drives south. In Miami, he stops long enough to establish a corporate front for Skelter Films; then he flies to the Caribbean islands, starting with Jamaica and then traveling onward to Antigua and Trinidad.
Chapter 25 Summary
The FBI has been watching Quinn’s family. They overhear Dee Ray speaking to a private detective who has tracked Malcolm to Jacksonville. By this point, Malcolm has returned from the Caribbean and receives the news that he has been spotted with a knot in his stomach. Malcolm declares to the marshals that he has lost confidence in their protective services and resolves to look after himself from now on.
Chapters 26 Summary
Malcolm packs up and leaves Jacksonville. He roams the country for a while, making sure that he isn’t being followed. Eventually, he makes his way to Roanoke, Virginia. There, he holes up in a hotel, free for the moment and scheming to get revenge on the system that betrayed him.
Chapter 27 Summary
Malcolm hires a private investigator to track down a man named Nathan Cooley, who spent time in prison and whose brother was killed in a conflict with the DEA. He sends Cooley a letter introducing himself as a documentary-film director named Reed Baldwin and claims to be making a film about a conspiracy in the DEA to kill suspects rather than arresting them. He offers to include Cooley in the film.
Chapter 28 Summary
Four weeks after his arrest, Quinn Rucker is not doing well. He is losing weight, taking antidepressants, and experiencing mood swings. One day, he demands to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. The next, he demands a trial. He threatens the guards, then tearfully repents. In an interview with the prosecution, he admits to knowing that Malcolm has left Florida. The prosecutor threatens to indict Dee Ray and any other member of the family they can reach if any of their witnesses are harmed. Quinn replies that they have no other witnesses and seems unperturbed.
Meanwhile, Malcolm can’t resist the need to see Vanessa Young. They met at Frostburg when she was visiting her brother (Quinn, although Grisham has yet to reveal this connection), and there was a mutual attraction. Vanessa was married at the time, and their romance seemed hopeless. She is now divorced and everything has changed. He meets her at a restaurant near Richmond. They check into a hotel and spend the night “catching up.”
Chapter 29 Summary
Malcolm goes in search of a video team. He also receives a call from Nathan Cooley in answer to his letter. They agree to meet the next day. Malcolm’s narration states that the whole charade of his new identity has nothing to do with hiding from Quinn’s family but is rather designed to deceive Nathan.
Malcolm last saw Nathan four years earlier, and Nathan was released six months prior to this upcoming meeting. Nathan doesn’t seem to recognize Malcolm, proving that Malcolm’s new face and mannerisms are an excellent disguise. Malcolm introduces himself as Reed Baldwin and reiterates that he is making a documentary about the DEA murdering suspects in cold blood. Malcolm claims to be interested in the death of Nathan’s brother. As Reed, Malcolm spins a story about a nephew who was shot point-blank while unarmed. He gradually draws Nathan into the idea of telling the story of his brother Gene’s death.
Chapter 30 Summary
The following morning, Malcolm meets Nathan at his house, accompanied by Vanessa, who is playing the role of his assistant, “Gwen.” He also has a videographer, Slade, and Slade’s assistant, Cody. Vanessa/Gwen’s real job is to manipulate Nathan, teasing and flirting. She makes an excuse to use the restroom and search Nathan’s house but doesn’t find anything suspicious.
Chapter 31 Summary
The following day, Malcolm, Vanessa, and the film crew go with Nathan to the place in the mountains where Nathan’s brother was killed. Nathan talks about his life since prison—he owns a bar and is trying to avoid his family of drug dealers. Nathan shocks Malcolm and Vanessa by remarking that “Reed Baldwin” reminds him of Malcolm Bannister, a man he knew in prison. Vanessa quickly changes the subject, asking Nathan about his nephews and the drug trade and whether he thinks the meth business is becoming generational in nature. Nathan agrees that drugs are one of the few viable careers in the region and that young people are often trapped into a constricted life by a culture of poverty.
They reach the place where Nathan’s brother was killed, and Nathan walks them through the crime. He and his brother were stopped and arrested by the DEA. Gene was on the ground with his hands behind his head, and as the agents were taking Nathan away, he heard the gunshot that killed his brother. Malcolm and his team spend hours filming scenes for the bogus documentary; then Malcolm floats the idea of Nathan going back to Florida with him to meet the other (fictional) victims who are to be featured in the supposed documentary.
Chapters 22-31 Analysis
In this section of the novel, the true complexities of Grisham’s vision begin to unfold in earnest. When Malcolm learns that Quinn’s family has located him, it initially appears that this is a major setback for Malcolm, but in reality it merely marks the start of the internal sting against Nathan Cooley, further emphasizing the underlying theme of The Long Con, the details of which will become fully evident at the novel’s conclusion. Multiple themes are at work in this section, for Westlake’s suppression of the video recording of the interrogation exemplifies the theme of Injustice in the Justice System. Even before this point in the story, Malcolm has already described the judicial process as a game in which both sides expect the other to cheat, once again serving as something of a mouthpiece through which Grisham can disseminate his own views on the topic. Similarly, Grisham uses the challenge to the interrogation as a further opportunity to illustrate the gamesmanship that is often substituted for a genuine search for truth within the American legal system. Grisham implies that the goal of all concerned appears to be securing the state’s case rather than ensuring that the interrogation itself is fair and legal. This dynamic is most pointedly emphasized when even the affidavit signed by the interrogators is revealed to be intentionally dishonest.
As Malcolm continues to lay the groundwork for The Long Con in pursuit of his own peculiar brand of justice, he continues to act as an unreliable narrator, for although his descriptions of events are never precisely lies, he often withholds crucial information even as he accurately reports his thoughts and feelings. For example, he plants another clue with the reference to Vanessa’s brother being someone he knew and liked. Technically, he is telling the truth—Quinn is the best friend he ever had—but he withholds this critical connection from the narrative. By this point in the story, although Grisham has hinted heavily that Malcolm and Quinn are working together, Malcolm still offers no conclusive statements to that effect. The ambiguity occurs in part because Malcolm has no apparent reason for withholding key details, and so his narrative may not be examined as closely as it should be upon a first reading of The Racketeer.
In a further exploration of the theme of Injustice in the Justice System, Malcolm has repeatedly asserted his loss of faith in the government, due to his wrongful conviction. He is also disillusioned by his father’s belief in his guilt and by his former business partners’ outright rejection of him. His letter to his father confirms the depths of his separation from his former life, for although Malcolm still loves his father, he finds it easier to walk away knowing that his father has betrayed his trust by not believing in his innocence. His father’s lack of trust is yet another example of The Cost of Punishment within a flawed justice system.
From a more practical standpoint, it is clear that Quinn and Malcolm are maintaining a balance of reasonable doubt. As The Long Con unfolds, Quinn’s confession serves to free Malcolm and give him the money he needs to launch the second half of their plan. Additionally, Quinn’s demeanor and actions are designed to manipulate the interrogation process itself, for by never specifically asking for a lawyer, he creates grounds to accuse the FBI agents of not following the law. Similarly, his pretense of mental illness throws doubt on his confession and keeps the FBI and the prosecution off-balance long enough for Malcolm to pursue and set up the real murderer, Nathan. Likewise, Malcolm’s remark that he doubts he will ever see the inside of a courtroom appears at first glance to be a throwaway remark or possibly an expression of concern that he will be assassinated by Quinn’s family. Retrospectively, however, it becomes clear that Malcolm is commenting on the fact that if his plans go well, Quinn will be released before the trial date.
The four-month trial date also gives Malcolm a time limit for the next part of his plan. He must catch the real killer and get the gold before Quinn goes to trial. It will be much harder to get Quinn off the hook if he has been convicted. If they can’t catch the real killer, they will have to present Quinn’s alibi anyway. In that case, Quinn would still go back to prison with an extended sentence for his first escape. Failing to catch Nathan Cooley also risks Malcolm’s re-arrest and conviction for giving false evidence. While Grisham has definitely considered all of these angles in the construction of the story, it is important to note that this information is still entirely obscured and will only become evident after Malcolm’s con of Nathan Cooley has run its course.
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