The Judge’s List – John Grisham (2021)

The Judge’s List by John Grisham, published in 2021, is a gripping legal thriller that continues the storyline of investigator Lacy Stoltz from Grisham’s earlier novel The Whistler. Set in Florida, this second installment follows Stoltz as she navigates a dark, chilling investigation into a serial killer who is not only highly intelligent but hides behind the robes of judicial authority. Grisham, a master of legal suspense, crafts a narrative where the law is both a shield and a weapon, wielded by a man with deadly precision.

Plot Summary

In the dim corridors of Florida’s Board on Judicial Conduct, where paperwork outlives purpose and morale has faded into fluorescent shadows, Lacy Stoltz is no longer chasing glory. Twelve years of investigating corrupt judges have dulled her passion, and even the echoes of a high-profile casino scandal that nearly killed her feel like someone else’s war. The resignation creeping through the halls of the BJC is contagious – budgets cut, coworkers fleeing, ambition quietly packed away. Then comes the call.

The woman refuses to give her name, insists on a face-to-face meeting, and hints at something more serious than judicial misconduct. Intrigued, Lacy agrees to meet her in the hushed corner of a downtown café. The woman, well-dressed and visibly anxious, uses the name Margie, though she admits it is one of many. She offers nothing at first but insists she’s not mad, not a conspiracy theorist. What she’s carrying isn’t a grudge – it’s trauma, cold and sharp and old. Her father, Bryan Burke, was murdered years ago. She knows who did it. A man who now wears robes of justice. A judge.

Burke, a beloved constitutional law professor, was strangled in the woods behind his retirement cottage in South Carolina, the crime scene barren of clues except a single detail – a blue nylon rope tied with a sailor’s knot. The police found nothing. The case went cold. But his daughter, real name Jeri Crosby, never let go. She grieved, she waited, then she hunted.

Jeri has spent over two decades piecing together a chilling pattern. Her father, she believes, wasn’t the only one. Others died the same way – a blow to the head followed by strangulation with the same kind of rope, the same knot, the same eerie silence left in the killer’s wake. Each victim had one common thread: a hostile link with a man named Ross Bannick, a judge in Florida’s Twenty-Second Judicial District. Respected. Charismatic. Untouchable.

Lacy is skeptical. Murder isn’t a word that floats easily through courthouse corridors, and certainly not in connection with sitting judges. But Jeri isn’t hysterical. She’s organized, meticulous, and terrified. Her evidence – decades of clippings, interviews, private notes – doesn’t scream delusion. It whispers method. Lacy agrees to dig, cautiously. There are rules, limits, career-ending boundaries, but something deeper pulls her forward.

Ross Bannick is more than a ghost in a robe. Once a law student in Professor Burke’s class, he had a public meltdown after being humiliated during a lecture. He dropped out, disappeared, then re-emerged at another school and quietly ascended the judicial ladder. His past, polished and guarded, reveals little. His present is a fortress – security cameras in his chambers, at his home, in his car. He lives alone, avoids friendships, keeps no public schedule beyond his docket.

Lacy visits Pensacola under the guise of a personal day. Jeri takes her on a quiet tour of tombstones and neighborhoods, pointing out sites where lives ended and fear began. Each victim – a journalist, a scout leader, a lawyer, a contractor – once crossed Bannick. Each death carefully orchestrated, never traced. Jeri believes she’s being watched. Her movements are careful, her habits irregular. She trusts no one but Lacy, and even then, just barely.

The deeper Lacy wades into the evidence, the more the coincidences harden into something sinister. Judge Bannick doesn’t just hold grudges. He curates them. He studies his targets, learns their habits, waits years to strike. He stalks with the patience of a monk and kills with clinical precision. His victims are diverse, but the root is always personal. A slight, a public embarrassment, a challenge to his control – each one unforgiven.

Lacy risks her job by investigating without authorization. She works late, off the books, and feeds updates to Jeri as they connect dots others have long forgotten. Meanwhile, Bannick senses something shifting. His careful world, once sterile and sealed, begins to rattle. He notices a shadow at the courthouse, a trail too faint for ordinary eyes. But he is not ordinary, and he is not afraid.

Jeri refuses to back down. Her obsession fuels her, even as it endangers her. She plants cameras, tailors disguises, records comings and goings. Her grip on fear is firm, but exhaustion blooms in her voice. She has no allies but Lacy and a private investigator she trusts. The PI, too, vanishes one day. Another whisper in the wind.

Lacy begins to believe Bannick knows they’re circling him. She pushes harder, trying to gather something usable. But Bannick moves first. One of Jeri’s contacts is found dead, the knot unmistakable. A warning – or a message – that he sees them, knows them, is already planning what comes next.

Cornered by bureaucracy, Lacy prepares to go public. But she needs one more piece – something undeniable. Jeri obliges, revealing a hidden camera near Bannick’s secluded home. What it captures is chilling: the judge, alone in the woods, digging. A shallow grave, the implication unmistakable. Not the act of a gardener. The file is handed off quietly, through encrypted emails and quiet handshakes.

Then Bannick vanishes.

His home is found abandoned, courtroom empty, security system dismantled. No trace. The man who once wielded the law like a scalpel simply evaporates. For weeks, federal and state agencies scramble. The manhunt yields nothing. No purchases. No car rentals. No flights. It is as if he never existed.

For Lacy, the case ends not with justice, but with a hollow sense of unfinished truth. Bannick is gone, but his shadow lingers. The judges who remain behind are rattled, and the BJC, quietly embarrassed, returns to normalcy. Files pile up again. Lacy, changed, understands that justice is sometimes a phantom too – hunted, glimpsed, and just out of reach.

Jeri disappears soon after. No trail, no forwarding address. Just silence – and the sense that she, too, has gone underground, always watching, always waiting.

Main Characters

• Lacy Stoltz – A seasoned investigator with the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct (BJC), Lacy is intelligent, skeptical, and deeply principled. Haunted by her past trauma and frustrated with her career stagnation, she is both weary and sharp. When she’s approached with a case involving a judge-turned-serial-killer, her professional apathy is quickly replaced by determination and a cautious sense of duty.

• Jeri Crosby (alias Margie) – A political science professor driven by the unresolved murder of her father. Intelligent, secretive, and methodical, Jeri has spent years compiling a dossier on the man she believes to be a serial killer. Her trauma fuels her obsession, and her fear is palpable, but so is her resolve. Her relationship with Lacy begins as wary and guarded but evolves into a reluctant alliance.

• Judge Ross Bannick – A respected circuit court judge with a spotless professional record and an icy, sociopathic core. Bannick is brilliant, calculating, and manipulative, using his deep knowledge of the law to plan and execute a series of murders. He is terrifying in his composure and ability to mask his monstrous tendencies behind a mask of civility and public service.

• Darren Trope – Lacy’s younger colleague at the BJC, pragmatic and loyal. Though he plays a secondary role, Darren supports Lacy’s clandestine pursuit and highlights the bureaucratic stagnation of the agency.

• Allie Pacheco – Lacy’s FBI-agent boyfriend. Although mostly in the background, Allie’s presence and career contrast Lacy’s own stalled trajectory, providing emotional nuance and tension in Lacy’s personal life.

Theme

• Justice and Corruption – The novel is a meditation on the thin line between upholding the law and manipulating it. Judge Bannick represents the ultimate perversion of justice – a killer who hides behind legal authority. Lacy’s role is to restore that balance, but she must work within a system designed to protect its own.

• Fear and Paranoia – Jeri’s long-standing fear that she is being watched, hunted, and dismissed mirrors the terror faced by anyone who challenges entrenched power. Her paranoia, while exhausting, is justified and drives the tension forward. The theme underscores the helplessness felt by victims of institutional failure.

• Obsession and Grief – Jeri’s life has been defined by the unsolved murder of her father. Her obsession blurs lines between investigative brilliance and psychological unraveling. This motif ties closely to the emotional cost of justice denied and the personal toll of revenge.

• The Failings of Bureaucracy – Grisham uses the BJC’s dysfunction and budget cuts to explore how systems meant to safeguard justice can falter through apathy and mismanagement. It’s a quiet but damning commentary on governmental ineffectiveness.

Writing Style and Tone

John Grisham employs a crisp, straightforward narrative style that balances methodical exposition with psychological suspense. His prose is clean and efficient, reflective of his legal background, but punctuated with moments of deeper emotional introspection—especially through Lacy’s internal monologues. Grisham’s ability to layer legal detail with thriller pacing ensures that the plot remains grounded even as the stakes escalate. His use of dialogue is particularly effective in revealing character motivations and creating mounting tension without melodrama.

The tone throughout The Judge’s List is darkly suspenseful and somber, infused with an undercurrent of dread. Grisham weaves an atmosphere of quiet menace, never relying on gratuitous violence but instead letting the psychological profile of the killer create fear. There’s a sense of cold inevitability, reinforced by the meticulous way Bannick plans his crimes. The emotional tone, especially through Jeri’s trauma and Lacy’s weariness, adds depth to what could otherwise be a procedural thriller. The blend of realism and moral urgency elevates the book beyond its genre trappings.