Grisham's latest thriller provides perfect break

John Grisham certainly times his book releases well. His newest thriller, "The Brethren," ($27.95) arrived in stores three weeks ago, just in time for spring vacations, a time when nearly everyone is looking for an airplane book. Predictably, "The Brethren" leaped to the top of the bestseller lists, following the path of Grisham's other tales of corrupt law firms and naïve, idealistic law students.

"The Brethren," however, strays somewhat from Grisham's general formulaic approach to the legal thriller. Even the cover of the book is different from the familiar marbleized background well-known to readers of "The Firm," "The Pelican Brief," and most of Grisham's other ten books.

In keeping with the trend of Grisham's last few books, which have attempted to broaden his scope without breaking with the pattern that readers know and love, "The Brethren" is not so much an actual thriller as a psychological one. Thus, Grisham sacrifices some of the page-turning intensity of his earlier works, but delves deeper into the field of (dare I say it?) character development.

The release of "The Brethren" is perfectly timed for reasons other than spring break: The book deals with the presidential campaign of Sen. Aaron Lake, and the issues surrounding elections are particularly relevant at this time. The CIA convinces Lake to run for president on a platform which consists of one and only one issue: defense.

The conceit around which Lake's campaign — secretly financed and orchestrated by the CIA — is built is that while all the other countries strengthen their militaries and arsenals, the U.S. is continually cutting back. By using this as the central message of the campaign, flooding the airwaves with doomsday-style ads and promising to double the defense budget in the first four years of his presidency, the CIA assures Lake that he will quickly become the forerunner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The book's second story line deals with a group of judges known as "the brethren" in a low security federal prison in Florida. These judges have ended up in prison because of a variety of crimes, ranging from embezzlement to drunk driving.

They are the arbiters of justice at the prison, settling debates between other inmates and helping people with their appeals and reductions of sentence. In their spare time, however, they run a mail scam — pretending to be gay boys in rehab, becoming pen pals with rich closeted men and then blackmailing the men with their incriminating letters.

These two stories connect in a fairly obvious manner, which can probably be deduced even from the brief plot outline above. Subtlety is not Grisham's forte. Suspense is where he excells. And it is when the stories intersect at long last that the buying of multiple plane tickets, dying of hair, changing of disguises and general evasion tactics that Grisham audiences so adore finally are incorporated into the narrative.

In attempting to branch out into new subjects, it is possible that Grisham has overextended himself. The novel is full of elections, closeted politicians, con men, blackmail and many other subjects. It is bursting at the seams with all of its new material, and the reader breaths a sigh of relief when the minor character of a lawyer eventually enters to return the book to familiar territory.

Particularly irksome is that it is impossible to tell what Grisham's own feelings are about the political issues he addresses, and this makes the novel somewhat unsatisfying.

In addition, there is no clear hero in "The Brethren." While Grisham novels often feature central characters who are somewhat suspect in their moral behavior, there is normally at least one appealing character. This is not the case in "The Brethren," and the reader is hard-pressed to find a point of connection within the novel.

While not as fast-paced as some of Grisham's other novels, "The Brethren" is still a good read. Grisham's work has been slightly uneven lately, and though his newest book does not rank with his highly enjoyable early thrillers, it is far better than many of the other novels for sale in airport gift shops.

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So if you're tired of deep philosophical essays and Old English verse, "The Brethren" may be just what you need this vacation. Of course, Grisham makes ideal beach reading too. You could always wait for summer, and the paperback.