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The Whistler: by John Grisham.
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The title sounds cryptic unless one is more familiar with idioms of U.S. than with English per se, and knows instantly that it's about quite another connotation. Did 'whistleblower' sound not good enough? Or is it supposed to be about someone who does it, not once, but as a career?
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Lacy is reading a memo that begins:-
"Population: Not sure of the exact number of Tappacola Native Americans (by the way, the term “Native American” is a politically correct creation of clueless white people who feel better using it, when in reality the Native Americans refer to themselves as Indians and snicker at those of us who don’t, but I digress)."
There is a whole bunch of racist assumptions tied up and confused together. Here is straightening up:-
"India" is a name given to an ancient land by outsiders, and while India had a few names for the land and nation and culture, none of them was anything remotely close to "India" or anything sounding anywhere near.
The outsiders defined India as the land that could only be approached by crossing the river Indus, hence the name. In India, the name of the said river is Sindhu, which outsiders deformed to "Hind" in Arabic and "Indus" in West, hence the outsider names Hindustan and India, respectively, given by outsiders.
Sindhu literally means ocean, in Sanskrit and therefore in India. That this Northwest river is the only one given this name indicates a memory of India of the era when the place was an ocean, before tectonic plates of India and Asia collided, the ocean was replaced by Himaalayan ranges in northeast where the thrust of collision was and is, and Sindhu river in the east.
Natives of us and the continent's other lands have no reason to have known of India as a term to refer to India the land, even if they migrated from Mongolia, since that migration was centuries prior to European colonisations and migrations. They were definitely not from India. Their use of the word "Indian", for their own identity, is due to the falsehood propagated by Columbus, and then on by other Europeans who migrated West across Atlantic ocean.
Using 'native American' is not merely politically correct, it's correct, period. Political correctness towards India is not using the term Indian for anyone whose ancestry isn't established or even claimed to be connected with India. Political correctness towards natives of any land would be to use their terms for them and the lands they belong to.
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Lacy and Hatch are investigators in a government agency, 'Board on Judicial Conduct ', that looks into judicial misconduct, and they get information from someone who used to be Robert Mix, now renamed Greg Myers, about judge Claudia McDover, who'd given a wrong verdict in a case involving two people murdered. The case and the murders are related to a casino on a native reservation, the judge supposedly having been paid cuts from huge amounts siphoned off from the casino. Lacy and Hatch investigate, but natives aren't talking. Then Hatch gets a call asking to meet late at night in a remote place, and as they leave the car is hit by a large truck, with Lacy is unconscious while Hatch dies on the way to the hospital. The other driver has walked away and ridden away with a prearranged vehicle and driver.
A store ten miles away has cctv footage of the two, which the store owner realises were involved, and talks over with his sheriff. They share it with the constable on the reservation, who's subsequently fired by the tribal chief and strictly ordered to not speak about any of it with anyone.
Lacy was helped heal faster by her brother who guarded her, cared for her, but had to leave soon, just before she was taken to her home by her mom.
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The author mentions a physiotherapist briefly as someone a new possibility in Lacy's life, but it seems like another Trojan and possibly a threat; there's the helpful British neighbour Simon, who might instead be the protector.
Lacy, her co-worker Justin and their boss Michael serve the complaint to judge Claudia McDover who's flanked by lawyers since they'd called ahead.
Shortly afterwards, with the Claudia McDover team repeatedly asking who Greg Myers was, he disappeared. His girlfriend was distraught, and lacy rescued her with help of her brother, Gunther, who flew her and collected Carlitta with Greg's things, and flew them back.
Lacy informed FBI, but they said boss in Jacksonville considered this whole case not as important as keeping track of illegal migrants connected to jihadist terrorism. But one of them, Pacheco, kept in touch.
Lyman Gritt, the dismissed honest sheriff from the reservation, had done his own investigation. He got in touch with Lacy through Junior Mace, the innocent member of the tribe on death row for murders he hadn't committed. Gritt handed over two videos and a bloody paper towel he'd found, and part of which he'd kept. Lacy and her boss got DNA test and identification via system and lacy informed Pacheco, and FBI arrested Zeke Foreman and brought him in, and attorney General met to offer him life in witness protection in exchange for information. He asked for a lawyer, which FBI had his earlier one ready, and they took the deal. Seek told the whole story and identified the driver of the getaway vehicle as Clyde Westbay, and FBI sent Zeke into witness protection; then on, FBI was listening to all four phones of Clyde Westbay.
They nabbed him at his hotel, and he turned to putty, as the author puts it. After some time with a lawyer, he agreed to a similar deal except he'd have to plead guilty to first degree murder and get five years instead of capital. He talked. He also delivered Vonn Dubose on tape, before they took him via rear door of his hotel.
But meanwhile the mole, JoHelen, the court reporter of Claudia McDover, was being investigated by Vonn Dubose, who'd sent his henchman to her home. She called Lacy. Lacy managed to rescue her, even as the killer Delgado was sprinting from his room in the next motel.
Here on, beautiful unravelling of the criminal syndicate and details thereof, very satisfying.
Lacy and Hatch are investigators in a government agency, 'Board on Judicial Conduct ', that looks into judicial misconduct, and they get information from someone who used to be Robert Mix, now renamed Greg Myers, about judge Claudia McDover, who'd given a wrong verdict in a case involving two people murdered. The case and the murders are related to a casino on a native reservation, the judge supposedly having been paid cuts from huge amounts siphoned off from the casino. Lacy and Hatch investigate, but natives aren't talking. Then Hatch gets a call asking to meet late at night in a remote place, and as they leave the car is hit by a large truck, with Lacy is unconscious while Hatch dies on the way to the hospital. The other driver has walked away and ridden away with a prearranged vehicle and driver.
A store ten miles away has cctv footage of the two, which the store owner realises were involved, and talks over with his sheriff. They share it with the constable on the reservation, who's subsequently fired by the tribal chief and strictly ordered to not speak about any of it with anyone.
Lacy was helped heal faster by her brother who guarded her, cared for her, but had to leave soon, just before she was taken to her home by her mom.
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The author mentions a physiotherapist briefly as someone a new possibility in Lacy's life, but it seems like another Trojan and possibly a threat; there's the helpful British neighbour Simon, who might instead be the protector.
Lacy, her co-worker Justin and their boss Michael serve the complaint to judge Claudia McDover who's flanked by lawyers since they'd called ahead.
Shortly afterwards, with the Claudia McDover team repeatedly asking who Greg Myers was, he disappeared. His girlfriend was distraught, and lacy rescued her with help of her brother, Gunther, who flew her and collected Carlitta with Greg's things, and flew them back.
Lacy informed FBI, but they said boss in Jacksonville considered this whole case not as important as keeping track of illegal migrants connected to jihadist terrorism. But one of them, Pacheco, kept in touch.
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Lyman Gritt, the dismissed honest sheriff from the reservation, had done his own investigation. He got in touch with Lacy through Junior Mace, the innocent member of the tribe on death row for murders he hadn't committed. Gritt handed over two videos and a bloody paper towel he'd found, and part of which he'd kept. Lacy and her boss got DNA test and identification via system and lacy informed Pacheco, and FBI arrested Zeke Foreman and brought him in, and attorney General met to offer him life in witness protection in exchange for information. He asked for a lawyer, which FBI had his earlier one ready, and they took the deal. Seek told the whole story and identified the driver of the getaway vehicle as Clyde Westbay, and FBI sent Zeke into witness protection; then on, FBI was listening to all four phones of Clyde Westbay.
They nabbed him at his hotel, and he turned to putty, as the author puts it. After some time with a lawyer, he agreed to a similar deal except he'd have to plead guilty to first degree murder and get five years instead of capital. He talked. He also delivered Vonn Dubose on tape, before they took him via rear door of his hotel.
But meanwhile the mole, JoHelen, the court reporter of Claudia McDover, was being investigated by Vonn Dubose, who'd sent his henchman to her home. She called Lacy. Lacy managed to rescue her, even as the killer Delgado was sprinting from his room in the next motel.
Here on, beautiful unravelling of the criminal syndicate and details thereof, very satisfying.
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January 05 - 09 -
February 01, 2020 - February 04, 2020.
Purchased September 06, 2019.
Kindle Edition, 352 pages
Published October 25th 2016
by Hodder & Stoughton
Original Title The Whistler
ASIN:- B01D1XCY38
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ISBN 978 1 444 79111 2
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