Tag: John Grisham

Reckoning by John Grisham

Reckoning by John Grisham

Introduction

Reckoning by John Grisham is a combination of a family saga and a courtroom drama novel. Pete Banning is a World War II war hero and the owner of a large plantation in Mississippi in 1946. He has been planning a deadly crime. One morning he wakes up and knows he must commit this crime despite the dire consequences. Can his family learn why he committed his crime and save the plantation from those who will take it from them?

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Summary

The Reckoning by John Grisham has three parts.

Part One, The Killing describes the deadly crime that Pete Banning committed. He tells no one why he did it. The section ends with a courtroom drama.

Part Two, The Boneyard tells the story of Pete Banning’s history. He meets and marries his wife Liza Sweeney. It tells the backstory about how Pete’s family bought their plantation in Mississippi. Since Pete was an army reservist, the army calls him up in 1941 and the army assigns him to the Philippines. Pete is one of the prisoners who suffered the Bataan Death March. The Army calls Pete missing in action and presumed dead to his family. He survives, becomes a war hero, and returns home, wounded but alive.

Part Three, The Betrayal follows the events immediately after Part One. Florry, Pete’s sister, lives next door and owns half of the acreage of their father’s original plantation. Joel is Pete’s son is Joel and Stella is his daughter. Liza, Pete’s wife, is committed to the insane asylum. His family must learn why he committed his crimes and save the plantation in a second courtroom drama.

Recommendation

I enjoyed this novel. It had aspects of a family drama, a war story, a courtroom drama, and a mystery. It was ambitious to put all these elements into a novel that wasn’t very long. The central mystery for The Reckoning was why did Pete do what he did. This question concerns every character in every part of the novel from the beginning to the end. So, it is extremely important that the reason was logical and unavoidable to make the novel the best it could be. My issue with the novel is that I don’t believe that Pete would do what he did considering what he knew at the time he committed his crime.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Reckoning by John Grisham.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47173384-the-reckoning

I reviewed Camino Island also by John Grisham.

Camino Island by John Grisham

I reviewed the Rooster Bar also by John Grisham

Rooster Bar by John Grisham

Rooster Bar by John Grisham

Rooster Bar by John Grisham

Introduction

Rooster Bar by John Grisham is a thriller about a group of four law students entering their last semester before graduation at Foggy Bottom Law School. Gordon discovers Foggy Bottom is a diploma mill making their hope to pass the bar exam and to get a job after graduation slight. They all have about $200,000 in debt. Gordon has followed the money to a ruthless hedge-fund operator behind the ruse. When Gordon dies, will Mark, Todd, and Zola expose the scandal or flee the country?

Summary

The main characters and viewpoints for Rooster Bar are Mark, Todd, and Zola. Mark Frazier went to law school expecting to get rich as a lawyer. He works as an intern at a firm which says they will hire him after he passes the bar exam, but it is not in writing and Mark is skeptical that they are telling him the truth. Todd Lucero is a bartender at the Rooster Bar and has gone to law school through the advice of his bar patrons. Zola Maal is a US citizen, but her parents are undocumented workers from Senegal. Her parents and brother face deportation and she wants to use her knowledge of the law to free them. Zola is the girlfriend of Gordon Tanner who has a fiance back in his hometown but he doesn’t want to marry her.

Gordon goes off his meds, fights with his fiance, and returns to Washington.  The four law students meet at the Rooster Bar and then go to Gordon’s apartment to see his research on the Great Law School Scam. After Gordon dies, the three must decide what to do with the information. They decide that their prospects of getting out of debt are slim so they create an unlicenced law office and start practicing law for cash from people on the fringe of society. They face loan collectors for their debts, the prospect of discovery of practicing law without a license, and the wrath of the hedge fund operator. Zola’s parents and brother are deported to Senegal. They must figure out a plan that will fix all their problems.

Recommendation

Rooster Bar by John Grisham was a frustrating book. The writing is clear and the plot moves quickly. The idea of the Great Law School Scam was interesting, especially how it affected the main characters. Zola’s dilemmas stemming from her parent’s deportation intrigued me. Mark and Todd are two knuckleheads who I wasn’t compelled to root for. Their solutions for their conflicts were increasingly terrible. If their motivations made sense, then I would have liked this book more.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Rooster Bar by John Grisham.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42415830-the-rooster-bar

I reviewed Camino Island also by John Grisham.

Camino Island by John Grisham

Two other recent thrillers I have read and reviewed are like Rooster Bar.

This is the link to my review of Bleak Harbor by Bryan Gruley.

Bleak Harbor by Bryan Gruley

This is the link to my review of The Speed of Sound by Eric Bernt.

The Speed of Sound by Eric Bernt

Camino Island by John Grisham

Introduction

Camino Island by John Grisham is a thriller about the theft of rare manuscripts from the Princeton University Library. Frustrated writer Mercer Mann is recruited by the FBI rare asset recovery unit to get inside the inner circle of rare book dealer Bruce Cable, the FBI’s suspect for buying the stolen original handwritten manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s five novels. Mercer must go to Bruce’s bookstore, Bay Books, on Camino Island in Florida. If she can convince Bruce to show her the manuscripts, will she turn him into the FBI or will she let him go?

Summary

The first three chapters of Camino Island follow the viewpoints of the three main characters in succession. The first chapter, The Heist, follows Denny Durban a disgraced Army Ranger as he and his crew steal the manuscripts from the Princeton Library. Chapter Two, The Dealer, is the backstory about how Bruce came into money, opened his bookstore, and becomes a dealer in rare writings. Mercer is introduced in Chapter Three, The Recruit, when she had just lost her job as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina. She had written a well-received novel years ago and a book of short stories. She had been unsuccessfully trying to write her next novel as she taught. Elaine of the FBI rare asset recovery unit has an offer for Mercer. Return to her childhood summer retreat of Camino Island to learn what she can about Bruce and the FBI will pay her well including eliminating her student loan debt. She had spent her summers there with her Aunt Tessa until her Aunt died. Mercer is reluctant to go, but she accepts the offer for the money. She engages with the writer’s community on Camino Island and is soon introduced to Bruce. He is a notorious ladies man, who is married to Noelle but is rumored to bed young female writers as they come for book tours at his store. Mercer is a likely target for Bruce and that is why Elaine recruited her. The story continues following Mercer, Bruce, and Denny until the conclusion.

Recommendation

I liked this book, but something was missing. It had to do with my expectations for the novel and the characters. I can’t decide who the protagonist is and the genre of this novel falls. The three main characters are Denny, the antagonist, Mercer, maybe the protagonist, and Bruce, who is somewhere in between. The categories on Amazon put this novel under thrillers and suspense with subcategories of Heist, Crime, and Conspiracy. It could have been a thriller, but Denny never threatens or even meets Mercer or Bruce. The secondary plot involves the writing community on Camino Island. It could have been a literary novel where Mercer found her muse to write by interacting with the community, but that’s not how the novel turned out. So, it’s a non-thriller thriller or a non-literary literary novel. The setup and characterization are well done, and that makes the unfulfilled ending disappointing.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Camino Island by John Grisham.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38398224-camino-island

Two recent thrillers I have read and reviewed are like Camino Island.

This is the link to my review of Bleak Harbor by Bryan Gruley.

Bleak Harbor by Bryan Gruley

This is the link to my review of The Speed of Sound by Eric Bernt.

The Speed of Sound by Eric Bernt