Rating: 
Summary: Quality Dirt Clods!
Review: This book is like a quality photograph of an acre of dirt-clods.Grisham, as usual, masterfully unveils his plot, but he fails to make us care about any one character in particular. The majority of the characters are the dirt-clods (with all manner of selfish motives), and the one or two we do find sympathy for are given only enough time to move the story another step forward. The story follows three law-breaking federal judges who now serve out their sentences in Trumble, a low-security prison. These judges, though well-depicted in their motivations, are somewhat despicable as they extort money via a gay personal ad scam. Things hit the fan when they find that they've snared a presidential candidate, Aaron Lake. Not only is Lake a "squeaky clean" candidate with a lot to lose personally, he's also being catapulted toward the presidency by shady CIA maneuverings. The bottom line: The three scam-artist judges, AKA: the Brethren, now stand in the way of the CIA's plans for the next president. Sure, the plot is intriguing, particularly with our recent presidential debates and election disasters. Ultimately, though, I felt hooked by an empty story. I sped through the pages to see what would happen, but came away thinking, Who cares? Grisham's best work, in my opinion, centers around one or two flawed but likeable characters. "The Brethren" centers around ten or twelve flawed and generally unlikeable ones. For that reason, I cannot recommend this book. Let's hope his next book is full of feeling and heart--everything this story lacked.
Rating: 
Summary: A good twist
Review: Three former judges are inmates in a federal prison and have cooked up a rather original and remunerative scam while they are locked up, with an eye to find the lolly available in their numbered accounts once they get out: through an ad inserted in a magazine for gays, they lure 40-50 year-old men to correspond with a couple of fake identities, and eventually blackmail them to make this correspondence known to their wives and/or to the public. All seems to work, and their greed increases, until they unwittingly try the trick on the Presidential candidate selected, financed, masterminded and plugged-in by the very director of the CIA. The resources of the powerful organization fall on them like a ton of bricks. Eventually, everybody seems to be satisfied. The twist in this last book by Mr Grisham is that each character is more or less despicable, and the secret agents seem to be the good guys - quite a change from earlier production. If Mr Grisham keeps turning out books with surprise features like this one, he can be sure to have me among his readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time On This Book!
Review: This is the worst book I have read in years. Not worth the paper it is written on. John Grisham should be embarrassed to have his name on this book if he actually wrote it, which I doubt. How an author who wrote such a terrific book as The Firm could have written this stupid book is beyond me. I kept reading on the mistaken thinking that it just had to get better. It didn't. Save your money and more inportantly, your time.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the ending?
Review: The book was interesting and entertaining to some extent, but what keeps you plugging along and somewhat intrigued is the inevitable great ending which you just KNOW is going to happen. It's coming, you can feel it, no doubt about it ... something is about to happen, just like his other books. Surely there must be a twist or a turn; something exciting is lurking out there and will make the read all worth while. A great mystery, soon to be unveiled. Grisham will pull through with a fantastic surprise ending that will knock you off your feet. I'm sure of it. There's one page left! Time is running out, but this is it! OK, last sentence, here it comes... Sorry, not this time around. Never happens. Not even close. The book just fizzles, thus disappoints. By the last page the reader isn't even sure who the protagonist is or should be. You actually start to like the cons, you're not sure about good old Teddy (maybe he's the one with the problem and should be behind bars), and Aaron Lake successfully disappoints you (not because he's gay, but because he's an ignorant puppet who gets sucked up into Teddy's little plan). And what is Teddy's plan? And what really happened to Trevor? Or the dangerous Russian thug? Where's the ending? The book leaves you hanging and looking for answers that just aren't there.
Rating:
Summary: This book doesn't cut.
Review: I am a John Grisham fan but this book is really disappointing. The writing style is superb of course but the plot, the story itself, is very predictable. After putting the book down, you want to ask, so what? From the first 100 pages you already know that the 3 judges will hook the Presidential candidate Aaron Lake. Where is the punch in the story? It doesn't deliver....
Rating:
Summary: Tiresome......zzzzzzzzzzzz
Review: First of all, I love John Grisham's books (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Testament, etc..)...most of the time. The Brethren is an exception to that rule. The story is okay, but it just goes nowhere. The ending goes out like a sputtering fuse. Nothing! What a disappointment. Don't buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: His Worst
Review: Of all the Grisham novels I've read--and I've read nearly all--his best was his first: "A Time to Kill." Even his lesser efforts have had strengths. Until now. "The Brethren" has nothing, unless you like a trivial story that starts and goes nowhere, one-dimensional characters you won't care about, and plodding dialogue. A big disappointment for a longtime Grisham fan. "A Time to Kill" proved Grisham can write. The rest of his books prove he can also make piles of money. But "The Brethren" suggests either that he can't write anymore, or that nothing matters to him but the money.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as other John Grisham works
Review: Maybe it was the theme. Or maybe it was me. I just didn't like this one like I did the others. I have bought all his books and read them all twice. My personal choice of his best is "The Testament".
Rating: 
Summary: This guy Grisham is good!
Review: Yeah, we all know Grisham is good -- with all his young lawyer sagas. But this one differs a little from the others. It's got a fascinating premise, well-drawn characters, and some pretty tense plot points. It takes place (mostly) in a prison, where we see the brethren's machinations so clearly it's as if we're watching them with a camera. The brethren are brought to life on the tapes well by Michael Beck, but the star is the plot. Grisham's plot twists are so good that there was at least one moment when a surprise event made me audibly gasp. I like that in a book! The best thing I can say about a book on tape is that when I got home from work I didn't want to get out of the car until I listened to "just a little more." With this one, I did that for several days!
Rating:
Summary: UGH
Review: This is the worst fiction book I have EVER read, and the second worst book I've ever read (Mein Kampf is the worst, just so you know what level I'm dealing with). I'd gladly give this book minus 5 or 10 stars if it were possible. I'm not a big fan of most of Grisham's work, only enjoying A Time to Kill and Testament. This work made sure that I will never read anything else by him.
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