The Tenth Justice

By Brad Meltzer

I had never read a Brad Meltzer book. When we were in Las Vegas in March, we drove to Utah to visit the Simons. I listened to James Altucher's podcast when he interviewed Meltzer. I was intrigued by what he had to share, so I bought one of his books, The Tenth Justice. I have enjoyed the book so far. It reminds me of how edgy and on the edge John Grisham used to be.



Here's the interesting parallel: this book was written in 1997, so Meltzer is a contemporary of Grisham's. I haven't read any of Meltzer's recent material, so the writers could have followed the same trajectory. I'm not finished with The Tenth Justice yet, but it has kept me on the edge of my seat. The protagonist and his group of friends is well-developed, and believable.

It could be that Meltzer came into my life because I have visited Washington, D.C. so often in the past couple of years, and actually toured the Supreme Court last summer. Yes, the protagonist is a Supreme Court law clerk who gets tangled up in some interesting business. He gets deceived early in the book, and has spent the rest of the book trying to tie up the loose ends.