The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Grisham, John. The Judge’s List. Doubleday, October 19, 2021. Kindle.

The psychological thriller The Judge’s List by John Grisham details the fight by an amateur investigator, Jeri Crosby, and an ill-equipped governmental office to prosecute and bring to justice a cunning serial killer. The killer, Judge Ross Bannick, is the least likely of suspects and has never attracted the interest of the police. He is smart, patient, and a sitting judge with a spotless record. All he leaves behind after his crimes is his signature nylon rope tied in a double clove hitch. Jeri must stop him without becoming a victim herself.

Jeri had spent 20 years searching police records and hiring investigators when she finally believed she had enough circumstantial evidence to convince someone that Florida judge Ross Bannick was a murderer. Jeri contacted Lacy Stoltz, a veteran lawyer with the Board of Judicial Conduct, a governmental agency tasked with investigating complaints against judges. Even though Lacy believed Jeri’s claims had merit, she knew her agency was not equipped to investigate a case of murder, much less track down a serial killer. Jeri made Lacy’s job more difficult because she begged to remain anonymous as long as possible, afraid that once Bannick knew he was being investigated, he would come after her.

Despite Jeri’s fear, she could not help but write Bannick a letter, taunting him with the threat that he was under investigation. Using his computer hacking expertise, Bannick is able to track Jeri down and kidnap her. Meanwhile, Lacy has employed the help of the FBI. Lab technicians found part of a thumbprint on a phone from a recent murder, but those prints do not match Bannick’s. They presume Bannick has had his fingerprints altered to avoid identification.

Bannick, who was holding Jeri captive in an isolated cabin, forced Jeri to arrange a meeting with Lacy so he could kidnap her also. He claimed he wanted to find out exactly what evidence the women had against him. When Bannick tried to grab Lacy at their meeting spot, he was attacked by her brother and had to leave alone. Back at the cabin, two teenagers broke into the house hoping to find something they could steal. When they saw Jeri they called the police.

Because Bannick knew the FBI was looking for him, he checked himself into a private rehabilitation center to hide from police. His first morning there, Bannick used acid to corrode his fingertips believing it would keep the police from connecting him to the crimes. He also took an overdose of Oxycodone, resulting in his death.

Jeri, who had been chasing Bannick because she believed he murdered her father, feared Bannick would never be held accountable for any of his crimes. On a whim, she located the truck Bannick was driving when he committed one of his recent murders. The truck, which had been wrecked and towed to a salvage yard, still had the owner’s manual inside the glovebox. Inside this owner’s manual was an insurance card Bannick left behind when he sold the truck. FBI lab technicians were able to lift a fingerprint from the card, a print that matched the one on the dead man’s cell phone. Although Bannick could not even be named a suspect in the other murders, the fingerprint proved he did kill one person.