The Boys from Biloxi

Although a legal thriller, ‘The Boys from Biloxi’ by the prolific, highly regarded, master writer, John Grisham, is quite different in style to many of his previous novels. It focusses more on the crime, and corruption along the Mississippi Coast and in particular, in Biloxi from the 1940s through to the later 1970s, where it was thriving. Gambling, strip clubs, prostitution, drugs, alcohol and the Dixie mafia are flourishing. In this environment can good conquer evil?

Childhood baseball protégés and friends Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco are decedents of two hardworking, Croatian families who settled in the Biloxi area and achieved the American Dream.

As teenagers going their separate ways and following in their father’s footsteps, one chooses the bright lights of the seedy nightclubs, while the other elects to work hard, go to law school and develop a social conscious. In due time, their paths cross again, which results in a violent and explosive conflict which lasts for decades.

Although some readers will consider this more like a historical documentary than a crime fiction, with this slower-paced novel, Grisham has again skilfully provided an enjoyable and enthralling story.