John Grisham delivers readers another action-packed legal thriller with "The Racketeer."

"The Racketeer" was published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and was released on Tuesday. The 352-page book is described:

Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered.

Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.

Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge's untimely demise? His name, for the moment, is Malcolm Bannister. Job status? Former attorney. Current residence? The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland.

On paper, Malcolm's situation isn't looking too good these days, but he's got an ace up his sleeve. He knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and he knows why. The judge's body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied.

What was in the safe? The FBI would love to know. And Malcolm Bannister would love to tell them. But everything has a price-especially information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett's death. And the Racketeer wasn't born yesterday . . .

Nothing is as it seems and everything's fair game in this wickedly clever new novel from John Grisham, the undisputed master of the legal thriller.

Malcolm Bannister is a small-town Virginia lawyer who was convicted of a crime he "had no knowledge of committing." Malcolm is "black, aged forty-three" and "the only black guy serving time for a white-collar crime."

[READ EXCERPT HERE]

"The Racketeer" is added to Grisham's collection of books since writing "The Firm" in 1991, which was adapted into a movie starring Tom Cruise.

Washington Post writes, "Grisham is at his best when his sense of moral outrage has been fully engaged. Big issues that pit a single, powerless individual against a vast, implacable adversary have inspired some of his most memorable novels."

He also wrote "The Innocent Man," which is a non-fiction book. Also, most of his books have legal background because of Grisham's involvement in the "Innocence Project," an organization devoted to assisting prisoners incarcerated for crimes they did not commit, where he is a member of the board of directors, according to WP.

"The Racketeer" has gotten rave reviews:

"It's the more devious, surprising story of a smart man who gets even smarter once he spends five years honing his skills as a jailhouse lawyer-and then expertly concocts an ingenious revenge scheme...Mr. Grisham writes with rekindled vigor here. Perhaps that's because he hasn't mired this book in excessive research...He has simply...gone back to what he does best, storytelling rather than crusading." - Janet Maslin, New York Times

Entertainment Weekly gave "The Racketeer" an A-. Reviewers on GoodReads gave the novel mainly four or five stars. Most have it marked "to-read." One fan said, "John Grisham's latest thriller, and one of my fav author. Cant wait to read his work, after finishing the ones on my reading list."

Waiting to get your copy of "The Racketeer?" You can buy it on Amazon for $17.