John Grisham
Fiction, 2018
I expect great courtroom scenes from Grisham, but what surprised me is how powerful his war descriptions are in this book. Our major character and murderer (we learn this in Chapter 1), Pete Banning, kills the local pastor in his office in broad daylight and never for a moment denies that he did so, AND never explains his motives. In section one, "The Murder," we follow Pete’s imprisonment and trial.
Section two, "The Boneyard," provides us with a devastating back story of Pete in the Philippines during WWll, fighting as a soldier, and then as a POW in extremely brutal circumstances, and then as a guerilla.
In "The Betrayal," the third section, the story is satisfactorily completed.
This is a rich Grisham and yes, I recommend it.
I was totally bored with the the last few Grisham books I read but this one sounds like one I might like. I’ll let you know.
I enjoyed this, too. Grisham is a great storyteller. I was expecting courtroom scenes and the fascinating paths his lawyers take. Surprise, but in a good way. He is not a formula writer. The war scenes are vivid and true. If you want more, read We Band of Angels by Elizabeth Norman. The true, untold account of the first American women to prove their mettle under combat conditions. Later, during three years of brutal captivity at the hands of the Japanese, they also demonstrated their ability to survive.