John Grisham

Somebody whose opinion I trusted recommended this to me as a brillant thriller. Next time I meet him we’re going to have an interesting conversation. This has to be one of the worst books I’ve ever read. It’s unbelievable on every level, from the wooden characters to the stilted dialogue, though the most unbelievable part for me is that I actually finished it. That’s a whole afternoon and a large part of the following morning that I knowingly and wilfully wasted, and at this stage show more life is just too short for that. The only consolation is that I now know never to read another book by Grisham, despite all the blurbs proclaiming him to be one of the best thriller writers in the world. I guess it’s a case of same planet, different worlds. show less

This is the most astonishing, terrifying, horrifying book by the brilliant author John Grisham that I've ever read (and I've read a few). We have all heard, surely, that "the truth is stranger than fiction". One may or may not subscribe to that theory, but this story certainly confirms it. One of the reasons I usually avoid non-fiction — especially about current events — is that it so often infuriates me. This story is another example of that. It infuriates me. It doesn't help that I was show more born in Oklahoma, spent nearly all of the first 23 years of my life there and know most of the towns mentioned in the story from first-hand experience.
When I sat down to write this "review" I thought of summing it up in just one sentence, "The American criminal justice system is just that: criminal." Read this excellent book and perhaps you'll understand what I mean. show less

Book on CD read by Craig Wasson

In 1971 Ron Williamson was signed by the Oakland A’s and left Ada, Oklahoma to pursue his dreams of big-league glory. But an injury and bad habits (drinking, drugs and women), ended his career. Back in Ada he began to show signs of mental illness. He moved in with his mother, and slept up to 20 hours a day on the sofa. In 1982 a young woman was raped and murdered, and for five years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never clear they show more suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. Despite a complete lack of evidence, and Ron having an alibi, the two were arrested and charged with capital murder. Relying on jail-house snitches and a “dream” confession, the prosecutors hammered at both men. Dennis was given a life sentence; Ron was sent to death row.

Grisham first heard about Ron Williamson when he happened to read the man’s obituary. The facts presented raised more questions and Grisham started researching how an innocent man could have been arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned with so little regard for his rights or for the truth. The result is a gripping tale that had me on the edge of my seat. Meticulously researched, Grisham packs the book with information that slowly but convincingly builds the case. If the reader is disturbed by reading about these events, one can only imagine the horror and despair of living such a scenario.

One of the most poignant sections comes after Ron has been released and is interviewed by a journalist. Asked about his beliefs, he answers: I hope I go to neither heaven nor hell. I wish that at the time of my death that I could go to sleep and never wake up and never have a bad dream. Eternal rest, like you’ve seen on some tombstones, that’s what I hope for. Because I don’t want to go through the Judgment. I don’t want anybody judging me again.

What begins as the story of one man’s nightmare becomes a treatise on the state of America’s Justice System, and its many flaws. From the author notes at the end of the book: The journey also exposed me to the world of wrongful convictions … This is not a problem peculiar to Oklahoma, far from it. Wrongful convictions occur every month in every state in this country, and the reasons are all varied and all the same – bad police work, junk science, faulty eyewitness identifications, bad defense lawyers, lazy prosecutors, arrogant prosecutors.

Craig Wasson does a fine job performing the audio version of this book. He has good pacing and he really brought Ron to life. show less

Over thirty years ago, I read my first John Grisham novel, The Firm. It was an outstanding legal thriller and for the next fifteen years, I devoured everything he published. As time went on, however, I noticed a steady deterioration in the quality of his work. Finally, I stopped reading him in about 2009. It was my impression that he was simply going through the motions, cranking out short, thin, formulaic novels for big paydays (a technique perfected by Larry McMurtry).

My wife continued to show more read him, so we generated quite a pile of Grisham works. Recently, on the verge of a trip, I finished a book and noticed that I had none in the queue, so I grabbed a two recent Grisham works just to fill the time. They were as I remembered them, not terrible, but certainly nothing to seek out or write home about, maybe 6 on a scale of 10. They filled the time.

Last week, a similar circumstance arose. Book finished, none in the stack, so I pulled this one. It is so offensively bad, that I question whether Grisham even wrote it. The premise is absurd, but the execution is even worse.

MILD SPOILER. The daughter of a cold case murder victim builds a strong circumstantial case, identifying a Florida Circuit Court judge as a serial killer. Does she take her evidence to the FBI or local law enforcement? Of course not. She takes it to the Florida Committee on Judicial Misconduct.

The first 100 pages can be summarized as:

“You have to help. Please.”
“We are not equipped to investigate murders.”
“But you have to help me!”
“I’m sorry, we can’t help you.”
“But, you HAVE TO help me!”
“Sorry, I can’t help you”.

Literally, one hundred pages of the most repetitive, annoying, offensively bad dialogue you can possibly imagine.

My theory is that Grisham, or whoever wrote this trash, finished up the book and discovered that even using all the standard techniques (large print, large spacing, wide margins, short chapters), he was still at only 250 pages, and you really need to be around 300 pages to justify charging for a “novel”. So, he went in and just repeated the first 25 pages four times.

It is exceedingly rare for me to abandon a book unfinished. Especially one that could be finished so quickly. This one is so offensively bad, that I’d rather watch television than read it. One of the worst books I’ve ever tried to read, and I’ve read over a thousand. show less