The Whistler

by John Grisham

A mysterious source contacts the (fictional) Florida Board on Judicial Conduct (BJC), promising information that will reveal the identity and crimes of the most corrupt judge in U.S. history. Investigator Lacy Stoltz is assigned to the case, and takes her sometime-partner Hugo Hatch with her to St. Augustine, Florida to meet the source in person. The source is revealed to be a disgraced lawyer from Pensacola named Ramsey Mix.

Mix reveals that the corrupt judge is Claudia McDover of Florida's 24th Circuit. Over the course of almost two decades, Judge McDover has aided the local Coast Mafia in their scheme to build a casino in partnership with the Tappacola Indian Nation. Aside from skimming money from the casino, the Coast Mafia has also been responsible for many nearby real estate developments, with any legal problems smoothed over by McDover in exchange for cash payments and condominiums.

In addition, the Coast Mafia has staged the murder of Son Razko, a prominent anti-casino member of the Tappacola Nation, and McDover has falsely convicted Razko's right-hand man, Junior Mace, of the crime. Mix has been given this information by an intermediary representing an unknown "mole" close to McDover.

When Stoltz and Hatch begin an investigation, the leader of the Coast Mafia, Vonn Dubose, decides to retaliate. Stoltz and Hatch are lured to a remote part of the Tappacola Reservation by a tribal member claiming to be a source. Driving away from the uneventful meeting, the duo are deliberately struck head-on by a truck. Hatch is killed and Stoltz is badly injured.

This escalation convinces the director of the BJC, Michael Geismar, to ask for help from the FBI. However, the up-and-coming lieutenant tasked with killing Hatch and Stoltz left behind evidence at the crime scene and was caught on video at a nearby convenience store. Aided by this evidence and a former Tappacola Nation constable, BJC and FBI investigators find Hatch's killers and offer them reduced sentences in exchange for information against those higher up in the Coast Mafia.

As their operation begins to unravel, Dubose and McDover realize there is a leak. Suspicion lands on McDover's court recorder, JoHelen Hooper, who is in fact Mix's source. Realizing her danger, Hooper hides in a cheap hotel on Panama City Beach, but she is tracked there by a Coast Mafia hitman. With Stoltz's help, she manages to evade the hitman. Both women retreat to a lakeside cabin in North Carolina for safety while the FBI captures Dubose and McDover.