The Confession by John Grisham

Friday, October 07, 2011

... if people are reading Grisham and me, does that mean...

S

ince my debut novel, The Protectors, has been published, there has been a series of books people have bought in connection with mine. It’s interesting to see these connections. Some times for me, the connection results in an introduction to a new author, but not always. Today it’s John Grisham and his novel The Confession. As it would happen, I have read it.

I read it on my e-reader, not a physical book as I’m used to reading. I used my Kobo, although I should add I have a Kindle for reading e-books. It’s the way these days. More and more people are reading novels in the e-book format. Not a paperback, trade paper or hardcover. The world of publishing and reading novels, reading books, is changing.

Here are some links to The Confession and The Protectors.

And a blurb on his novel.

John Grisham delivers his most extraordinary legal thriller yet. Filled with the intriguing twists and turns that have become Grisham’s trademark, this newest novel will prove once again that no one keeps readers in suspense like America’s favorite storyteller. An innocent man is days from execution. Only a guilty man can save him.

For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty one left on the outside. He doesn’t understand how the police and prosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesn’t care. He just can’t believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes that the mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in their case and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch the trial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relieved when the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police and prosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow an innocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to be executed.

Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.

Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess.

But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?

Posted 2011/10/07 at 06h15ET in Novels, The Protectors (A Thriller).