by John Grisham

Great start, poor ending…

Verdict: Great start, but the ending is a mystery (not in a good way). The tale is a fictional treatise on capital punishment. Since Grisham’s treatment of the subject shows he does not favor capital punishment, readers with a different opinion on the subject may have a very tough time with the book in its entirety. The reason for a 3-star rating-the plot, mainly the last third of the story (more on that below).

What’s it about? As said, first and foremost, this is a book about capital punishment.

Donte Drummond, an African American ex-football star in a small northeast Texas town, has been wrongly arrested for the rape and murder of a popular high school cheerleader. After spending nine years on death row, Donte’s date with death is closing in. Around this time, Travis Boyette, who has been recently paroled in Kansas, shows up in the office of a Lutheran minister and confesses to the crime. Seems Travis has an inoperable brain tumor and will die soon, so he has decided to come clean with his story.

Much of tale from here deals with Donte’s legal team who are pulling out all the stops to at least delay Donte’s execution. The main question is whether this ex-con with a brain tumor can convince Donte’s legal team to believe him and then convince the authorities to either delay the execution or overturn the charges against Donte.

The Story (plot and character): The story is third person, mostly omniscient viewpoint. When Grisham does drop into different viewpoints, he uses a wide range of characters.

The pace and storytelling in the first 2/3rd of the book is superb. Great three-dimensional characters and an interesting plot. I found it to be a page-turner (which is not that common for me) as the story races toward the day Donte is to be taken to Huntsville to be executed. The question the reader wants answered: Will the combination of Travis Boyette’s confession and Donte’s legal team efforts thwart the state’s plan to execute an innocent man?

Then comes that last third of the book. The best way I can describe it is that the book actually ended when the question was answered (I don’t want to give it away!). The last 100+ pages was like a monstrously long epilogue. I kept waiting for something big (possibly surprising) to happen…it never did. IMO the climax occurred 2/3 of the way through the book, not close to the end as in most fiction of this type.

What’s good about the book? The writing is pure Grisham. Very entertaining. No foo-foo prose here. It’s legal thriller language and dialogue through and through. Again, it starts off with a bang. Rendition of small Texas town is well done too (I know this part of the world).

What was not so good? As stated, the last part of the book was a disappointment, no longer a page turner.

Bottom line: If you like Grisham’s books, you’ll enjoy the prose, the storytelling, etc., but you may be disappointed near the end. If you favor the death penalty, you won’t like this book. If you haven’t read Grisham, skip this one and read A Time to Kill and The Firm, both great books.