Sunday Synopsis

 

A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like Grisham's legal thrillers. This one was better than Sycamore Row, and almost as good as A Time to Kill, which I still consider his best. Another Grisham book that really affected me was The Chamber, but that's a post for another day.

I enjoyed being back in Clanton with the Brigance family, Jake, Carla, and daughter Hanna. I feel like I know them. I would like to revisit them again in another book down the road. This one was left open to that because, darn you, John Grisham! I didn't get the resolution I wanted! The case is not completely over at the end of the novel, although it appears that it possibly could be. I don't want to give anything away.

In this book, it is 1990, five years after the Hailey case, and Jake is once again defending an unpopular defendant, this time not by his choice. He is assigned the case. The accused is Drew Gamble, a sixteen year old boy who has murdered a county deputy in whose home he has been living with his mother and sister for a few months. Most of the town wants the death penalty, and they do not hesitate to say and do what they feel they must to get their own brand of justice. With Jake defending the boy who killed a law enforcement officer with strong ties to the community, Jake also is subjected to the wrath of many of his fellow Clantonites.

Like A Time to Kill, you get a sense of life in a small town where most people know everyone and gossip runs faster than a Bugatti. We come face-to-face with Harry Rex and Lucien Wilbanks, and Judges Omar Noose and Rueben Atlee as well as Carl Lee Hailey. With several plot twists - one I saw coming and a few I didn't - this book was difficult to put down. And I heard that Grisham wants Matthew McConaughey to again play Jake Brigance. That sounds dandy to me!

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