Brajesh's Review : Theodore Boone - The Activist

Fourth in the Theodore Boone series, "The Activist" has all the usual stuff similar to the previous two. Simple story line with a key issue of eminent domain or land acquisition by government is relevant and is dealt with maturity for young readers.

After reading two John Grisham's back to back, I was quite amazed by the difference in style. As we know, Boone is the young reader series of Grisham, he keeps the narrative and language simple, yet never makes it stupid or dumbed-down. This makes it a powerful story for young readers.

The book also has several motivational and inspirational plugs without being preachy. I would say great read for all kids in the age group of 8-13, and the parents could also read and discuss the book to make the experience even richer.

Rating : 3 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Sycamore Row

The hero of "A Time to Kill" Jake Brigance returns after 25 years in real time and 3 years in narrative. This book reminds us why John Grisham remains one of the best.

Although the real trial begins only on page 450, the characters and storyline keeps you hooked. There aren't any dramatic or earth shattering twists, but the smaller human behaviour led turns are deeply engaging and real.

You get hit in the gut with the pain of lynch mobs only in the last 50 pages, but before that you just keep guessing motives, inspirations and drivers for actions of all key characters. Though I had forgotten most of "A Time to Kill", this one gave sufficient key references to get the memories back and that was another bonus.

Great holiday read.

Rating : 4 / 5

Brajesh's Review : The Racketeer

Good old fashioned Grisham Style page turner. Malcolm's plotting and the speed of the story keeps you hooked. After a long time, Grisham has written a simple, straightforward (without a message or agenda) book. This is the kind of stuff that made him a legendary writer and he is bloody good at it.

Rating: 4 / 5

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Brajesh's Review: Theodore Boone - The Abduction

Didn't like this half as much as the last Boone. Grisham is obviously trying to built a Potterish franchise - but the book doens't develop the characters or plot from the last one !!! Big opportunity missed. Hope he does better next time, else Boone is not goona get stickyness. Avoid.

Rating: 2/5

Brajesh's Review: The Litigators

Typical Grisham, if you miss this you haven't missed a lot. But if you are a Grisham fan you won't miss this. Typical big pharma company mass litigation, but a completely new angle. Grips you tight but the ending didn't work for me

Rating: 3/5

Brajesh's Review: The Confession

Typical Grisham, Fast Paced, Strong in Opinions and POVs. Makes you think hard on Capital Punishment. Do read if you like Grisham (which I guess everybody does :) ).

Rating: 3/5

Also Read : Kim's Review of the Confession 

Kim's Review: The Confession

The latest read from the John Grisham stable.

In 1998, in Sloan - a small East Texas city - a beautiful young cheerleader is abducted, raped and strangled. Donte Drumm, an African American football star from the same high school with no connection to the crime is arrested, prosecuted and sentenced with the death penalty.

9 years later, having exhausted all his appeals when Donte is 4 days away from execution - Travis Boyette a criminal with a mile long rap sheet walks into the office of Reverend Keith Schroeder in Kansas and confesses to the crime.

The story is engrossing and is a good case against the death penalty and the way arrests, trials and sentencing is biased in smaller towns across the USA. However at times, if Grisham was within hearing distance, I would say to him "Please get off your soap box and get on with the story"

The story is emotional and Grisham tries to explore the tragedy from every angle. The despair of wrongly accused Boyette, the sadness of Nicole Yarber -the victims- family who also end up milking the tragedy for what its worth, the role of the churches, the tenacity of Robbie Flak - lawyer of Travis Boyette, the scheming of police and public officials, the internal conflict of Reverend Keith Schroeder.

Grisham has very strong views on what he sees as serious flaws in the American justice system and in his last few books he tries to bring these flaws into focus by creating fictional worst case scenarios - that make for interesting reading, but are getting heavier with technical legalese and missing the essence of what made his first few books absolutely unputdownable.

Kim's Review : The Appeal

The latest bestseller from John Grisham after - The Innocent Man.

Given that the Innocent Man was a work of non-fiction, makes this book all the more frightening. Grisham himself was very excited about his first real legal thriller in years.

In this book (I wouldn't call it a novel) Grisham exposes the nexus between big business, politics and the law. While these have always been recurring themes in his books, this time in "The Appeal" it is the sole focus of the book.

The book starts with a chemical and environmental pollution case in small town Bowmore, Mississippi, now nicknamed Cancer County, where Krane Chemical is the accused and Jeanette Baker the plaintiff.

Jeanette has lost both her husband and son to cancer. This makes hers the strongest case to start with for her lawyers - Wes and Mary Payton. There are plenty of mass tort specialists and ambulance chasers waiting in the wings for the decision on this case, so they can all get themselves a piece of the pie (30% to the lawyers) while the Paytons themselves are over 400,000$ in debt by virtue of working and following up on this case (to the exclusion of all others).

The jury orders damages of 41 million dollars to be paid to Jeanette and here is where the plot actually takes off.

It is an intriguing ride that Grisham takes us on and is an excellent medium to learn how the Supreme Courts in the US work. Most states choose their Supreme Court justices by election, which leaves plenty of room for interested parties to skew the process. How that happens, is the meat of this book.

The ending may not please a lot of readers, but it is extremely realistic and I admire Grisham for leaving it there rather than neatly tying things up.

The book is extremely interesting and educating on the political and legal intrigue that takes place behind these elections. While this may be a work of fiction, it could very well become reality, any time in the near future and that is what is so scary about this book.

Also published on desicritics.org

Kim's Review : The Innocent Man

After lying unread on my bookshelf for over 9 months, I finally got around to reading John Grisham's latest offering and first work of non-fiction - "The Innocent Man".

Growing up on a steady diet of Erle Stanley Gardner and in love with Perry Mason, it was but natural that I become a fan of John Grisham's legal works of fiction. But other than "Skipping Christmas" which was moderately interesting, his non-legal fiction did not excite me at all. So I wasn't sure what to expect with his work of legal non-fiction.

Fortunately it was interesting reading for the most part except the botched trial that got really slow and repetitive. Since this was a true story and Grisham was using actual court transcripts, he had to keep it so, but could have edited it a bit to make it crisper. Maybe all the legal serials we watch - The Practice, Law & Order, Boston Legal and others of their ilk have gotten me to expect snappy, sharp detective work, logical but persuasive arguments by counsel and crisp closing statements. The way the case was handled was completely slip shod and pathetic and makes you wonder at the possibility of truly getting justice unless you are in a TV serial.

Little wonder that a libel suit was filed against John Grisham on 28, September 2007, by Pontotoc County - Oklahoma, District Attorney Bill Peterson and Gary Rogers, a former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent.

This true story, is remarkable for the fact that the main accused Ron Williamson who was framed by the law enforcement team of Pontotoc County was not just a "white" man, he was a semi-FAMOUS "white" man.

Ron Williamson was a local hero on the baseball field and was also the 41st pick in baseball's 1971 amateur draft, a second-round selection by the Oakland Athletics. Due to poor performance, he did not hit the big time but he was still quite a local celebrity when he was accused as the murderer of cocktail waitress Debra Carter.

His co-accused Dennis Fritz had nothing to implicate him except that he and Williamson were occasional "drinking buddies". Ironically Fritz's own wife had been murdered 7 years ago.

The police used forced dream confessions, convicted felons as snitches and witnesses, junk science and other dubious means to get them both convicted. Williamson got the death penalty which automatically set a series of appeals in motion while Fritz got a life sentence.

Through his incarceration, Williamson deteriorated physically and mentally despite the efforts of some good hearted souls until the Innocence Project - (basis for the serial In Justice) helped get them both acquitted after 12 years on the basis of the new technology - DNA testing.

Grisham read Williamson's obituary when he died (5 years after being released) and was inspired to research and write this book.

I started out reading the book, knowing that the main accused was innocent (could the title have been more descriptive?). Grisham wrote the book, knowing that Williamson was innocent. But even someone who didn't know some of the data presented here in hindsight, could have seen that this was a wrongful conviction. And it appalls you that even though the case came up for appeal multiple times, each person upheld the original wrongful conviction.

Hence Grisham seems to have achieved his major goal in writing this novel.

"If you believe that in America, you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you.
If you believe in the Death Penalty, this book will disturb you.
If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you"



Also published at desicritics.org