John Grisham is
the master of courtroom drama, and in his latest crime novel, Sycamore Row, he proves that once again.
This is the sequel to A Time to Kill,
a fabulous story of racism and violence that took place in the mid 1980s in
Mississippi. Unlike A Time to Kill, which
starts with a brutal pedophilic murder, this story starts with the simple suicide
of Seth Hubbard, a wildly successful but secretive entrepreneur who is in the
final days of his struggle with metastatic lung cancer. Seth decides to leave his
millions to his black housekeeper rather than his two ex-wives, two children,
and four grandchildren. He leaves a handwritten will which he knows will be
contested by the family, and he posthumously hires attorney Jake Brigance to make sure
his wishes are followed.
A Time to Kill was made into a very successful 1996
movie with Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance, Ashley Judd as his wife,
Sandra Bullock as the young paralegal, Samuel Jackson as the murder defendant
Carl Lee Hailey, Kevin Spacey as the prosecuting DA Rufus Buckley,
Oliver Platt as the conniving Harry Rex Vonner, and Donald Sutherland as the
brilliant but disbarred and drunken Lucien Wilbanks. How much fun it is to see
all of these wonderful characters come back to life in a new, equally compelling drama.
Jake had never
met Seth, but Seth wrote that he chose Jake for his attorney because he was so
impressed with Jake’s handling of the Carl Lee Hailey trial. I would not have
thought that a contested will could provide so much drama, but as Grisham
fleshes out the characters, he creates just that. I did not put this book down
until it was finished, thereby ignoring a few tasks that really needed my
attention. As Grisham does with his other novels, this story makes lawyers look both good and bad, both honest and
money-grubbing. Grisham artfully reviews the troubled history of Mississippi
and its long history of racial turmoil. Even though I saw the details of the
ending coming long before Grisham got to the dramatic conclusion, the story
held me in its grips. This is an A+ read which you’ll enjoy.
I’m been a fan of Grisham from the beginning and still believe 'A Time to Kill' is his best work. Yet this sequel is a real treat. Grisham masterfully crafts these characters into believable people with all the predictable but endearing human qualities. All this while weaving a compelling plot that reveals each twist and turn at the most opportune time. I didn’t read it in one sitting as did WCD but between sessions found myself anticipating the next opportunity to continue this adventure.
ReplyDelete