Side by Side Comparison of: Dell vs Dell Pub Co vs John Grisham vs Grisham, John

This is another great novel by John Grisham. This may be a book of fiction but the situation is as non-fiction as it gets. In this day and time it's hard to imagine that such racism could have taken place in our great country, but as a young boy I myself seen so many racist acts some 55 years ago. However sad, this book is a great read and one you won't want to put down.Enjoy!!!

This book is a combination historical fiction, police procedural, generational history, race relations and, Grisham's usual courtroom drama. I think the characters are unusually complex for a Grisham novel. Set in the Deep South and centered around the major question "Is this holographic will legitimate?", there are the additional questions of authenticity and familial and moral responsibility. Yes, I recommend this book.

This is the first Grisham book I have read. My wife has read all of them, and she says that many of them are better than this one. But I thought Sycamore Row was quite good. I don’t read a lot of fiction, but have read several fiction books in the past year. This is the most fun to read, the most interesting. Grisham puts a lot of details into the book that aren’t needed, but they give you more of a feeling that you are an eye witness to everything that happens. You could say that the ending is a little sappy, and a little predictable, but it is satisfying and the way it plays out is pretty clever.The book is set in Mississippi in 1988, and race is an issue. Grisham seems fair in the way he depicts it. There good and bad people and complicated people of both black and white races. The greatest evil is done by some whites.Maybe the minimum age to read the book should be thirteen. A lot of young people don’t know a lot about the history of race relations in the United States, and they should get some help in understanding it and making sense of it. There is brutality in the book. There is speculation that Seth Hubbard and his black housekeeper were intimate, but no steamy scenes.

Seth Hubbard was a business man that a lot of people didn't say to much about but when he get's lung cancer this life changes he send a written will to Jake Brigance and ask him to take care of it and said don't let no one change it he send his pastor a letter and told him how he wanted his funeral he plan everything then he went to the sycamore tree and hangs his self. In the will he leaves everything to his black maid and then people started to talk but Jakes there for her at the end of the story my mouth was all when Ancil Seth brother tell the story. it was a good story but to long it could have been told a lot shorter

I do not think that I have ever read a book as slowly as I did Sycamore Row. I wanted to sink into the time and place that John Grisham was unfolding for me. I wanted to understand the racial nuances that are as important as any individual character in this book. I needed to step away from my current beliefs of political correctness and return to a more turbulent time of 1988 Clayton, Mississippi.Many of the old characters from A Time to Kill are here, but the setting is different. Jake Brigance is still trying to rebuild his life after the Klan burned down his home and the insurance company has been stalling for three years as to the payoff. What Jake needs is an infusion of cash, what he did not expect was how the suicide and holographic will of a much disliked man was going to change everything.Money changes people and when Henry Seth Hubbard, a white man, leaves the majority of his estate to his housekeeper Lettie Lang, a black woman, all hell breaks loose as anyone and everyone has an opinion as to why.As a reader, a personal relationship between the two seemed too obvious and Mr. Grisham is a much better writer than that, so I began to jump to my own conclusions. Of course, I was wrong and the truth behind the largess is stunning. I reread that part twice and I swear I did not breathe either time.Say what you will about John Grisham, but this man can write a courtroom drama. What unfolds in both the legal arena and the lives of those involved is both stupefying and mesmerizing. The people, the personalities, the humor, it all rings true. Bad choices are made that can derail the whole thing, but when you are fighting for the wishes of one man, a man with a secret that must be told, there is no stopping Jake in his fight for his client.

I have always loved John Grisham's books. I can remember when I was introduced to his writing when I read A Time To Kill. I read ALL of the time - I inhale books. I have been disappointed in the last few Grisham books. In fact, I was quite irritated to read his baseball ones. I felt he had abandoned his best writing : lawyer, courtrooms, small Southern towns. Well, I just finished Sycamore Row. Oh, my! It's a wonderful book. I loved how I could not guess how the ending would be. I will have to say Grisham is back 100%. This book will shoot to the number one spot on the best sellers list!

This is my favorite John Gresham book! After working in the judicial system for many years, I have always enjoyed his courtroom drama & it is fun to read his descriptions of the various aspects of courthouse business. The first book of his that I read mentioned the big red & gold docket books & I knew then that he was familiar with the system. This book doesn't have much of that & at first it took me a while to really get into it, although it was a good story. Then, it about half way through it got very good. The characters were development was excellent & the action was exciting. I read some of the negative reviews & suppose that those people were expecting the courtroom drama that Mr. Grisham is best known for. As the author said in his "Author's Note", he didn't need much research for this one because none of it is true. I think he probably had a lot of fun writing this book & it shows.

I loved the early Grishams, before he decided to become a liberal commentator. I was hesitant to buy this one after quitting Grey Mountain in the middle due to the liberal propaganda, but I am glad I did. It is a simple formula: Legal basis, someone has access to unlimited money from an unlikely source, the story begins in the middle and unfolds to reveal what has happened. These let the reader imagine with the protagonist. No one will accuse Grisham as writing a deep, meaningful novel, but I will read every one using this formula for success. Implausible, yes, but a really fun read that is hard to put down! Are you listening, John?

Another fabulous book by John Grisham. I have probably read just about all of Grisham's books; he's a marvelous story teller and it's hard to put this book down. The story was quite imaginative. I really didn't expect what happened next. Each time I thought the story could be over, it changed course and I was captivated by the imagination he has. As always, there's humor thrown into the dialogue, which I also get a kick out of. This is definitely a "must read" for Grisham fans and a good start for anyone who hasn't read his many novels.

The first time I started reading this book it was very hard for me to get into it. I heard others say it was a good book but Grisham had already lost my attention. When I quite literally had nothing else exciting to read I figured I would give this book another chance and start again from the beginning. I am SO glad I did because it really is a good book! Part of the reason why I enjoyed it the second time around was because I had more time devoted to sitting down, going through the pages and truly grasping the story. If you're an occasional reader who gets to books only when you have the time, you may not enjoy this book as much. There are details that get lost from infrequent reading.

Had not read Grisham in a couple of years - last book we read was just so-so and we got started on Tom Clancy and some others. Decided to give this one a try based on other reviews and it was a really good read. More humor than I remember in previous Grisham books! I love the sparse or very little vulgar language - we read while traveling - husband drives and I read. He loves books on tape, but I am very visual and need to see the words to follow the book. There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the very end without becoming tedious! We've backed up to his 2011 book, The Litigators, and are reading that - about halfway done and it is totally different and yet very enjoyable and still lawyer based.

Usually, I have a few books on my kindle, read a chapter or two then on to the next book and rotate through them. Drawback is it takes longer to finish a book, but fun when you can cross off 3 or 4 in a week. However, there are some authors who tell a story so well that I stick with it until I am finished. Lee Child fits this category and so does John Grisham. Great story telling, interesting plot that kept me guessing in a book that moved right along. Some people found the central character less than sympathetic but think about how you would feel if you were railroaded into prison under those circumstances. An enjoyable bit of "mind candy" to offset all the political and non-fiction material I have been immersed in lately!

4 stars! I read this book for a book club group. I found it interesting and thought provoking! I truly enjoyed reading it. Not being a native Southerner, I was not aware that the reprehensible treatment of black people lasted as long as it did. I'd liked to think that we've learned from our mistakes.

Just want you might expect from Gresham novel. Fairly predictable plot twists but not enough to detract too much from the reading experience. Some character inconsistencies - but again, not enough to detract from the novel. Enjoyed the local color and procedural narrative. Would recommend for a summer read.

John Grisham is above all a great story teller. Sycamore Row picks up the life of small town Mississippi attorney Jake Brigance three years after the conclusion of the Hailey trial that served as the story line for "A Time To Kill". Seth Hubbard, An elderly white man with terminal lung cancer and only weeks to live, hangs himself from an old sycamore tree deep in the woods of his large farm. The day after the hanging Jake, who had never met Seth, receives a concise hand-written letter from him along with an equally concise hand-written holographic will that bequeaths 90% of his surprisingly large (to everyone who knew him) estate to Lettie, his attentive black house keeper of three years and end of life care giver. Seth directs that this will should supersede the more formal traditional will drafted for and signed by him two years prior that left the majority of his estate to his two living and semi-estranged.adult children. Jake's tasking by Seth is to do everything within his ability to insure that his most recent will prevails and withstands the anticipated challenges by overlooked progeny and their team of slick, greedy and at times ethically-challenged big city lawyers.A jury trial ensues and this is when Grisham's writing excels technically. He clearly understands the ins and outs of the American judicial system, the thinking and behavior of the legal community, courtroom procedures and the special nuances of all of the foregoing in the rural south. The trial predictably takes many twists and turns and the over-riding question in the minds of all concerned is why would an uncommonly wealthy white man leave most of his fortune to a black maid whom he had known only a few years, totally neglecting his direct descendants in the process. In the end, of course, this question is answered in a totally plausible but somewhat predictable manner and the story ends on a satisfactory , though somewhat saccharine sweet note.This was a highly entertaining story full of unique, idiosyncratic and interesting characters. My main criticism of this as well as Grisham's other works is that the dialog between characters often seems somewhat artificial and forced and some of the characters are superficial and rather plastic or shallow. Regardless of these shortcomings Sycamore Row is an interesting and entertaining story that should have broad appeal to Grisham's followers and other lovers of legal thrillers.James McLamb

Grisham finally revisits Jake Brigance, the brash young lawyer from his first book, “A Time to Kill.” This time, with the story set only three years after the events of “A Time to Kill,” Jake takes on the case of a contested will rather than a murder case.Although it might seem like a contested will would be much less interesting than a murder, “Sycamore Row” works surprisingly well at building tension. When a rich old man dies and leaves his huge fortune not to his children, but to his housekeeper (who happens to be black), the entirety of Ford County takes a vital interest in the case, which forms the mystery at the heart of the book.It’s good to revisit with remembered characters from “A Time to Kill,” from the alcoholic old lawyer Lucien to bombastic Harry Rex. I’m not a fan of Grisham’s to the point where I love all his books. He’s written some real stinkers, in my opinion, and I’d given up reading him until this book came out. But “A Time to Kill” is my favorite Grisham novel, still, and the idea of revisiting Clanton and Ford County was just too appealing to pass up. I’m glad I didn’t skip this one: “Sycamore Row” is Grisham at his best.

"Sycamore Row" gives us something that John Grisham hasn't written in a long time -- a bona-fide courtroom thriller. Since "A Time to Kill", Grisham's legal thrillers have dipped into all sorts of other genres, political screeds, gentle character portraits, some outright adventures. This time, it's different. "Sycamore Row" actually follows a single case -- a contest over a handwritten will, attached to a suicide note -- from the discovery of the will, through depositions, discovery, trial (with tons of surprise twists), and even the inevitable appeals. This book is a good , if somewhat cartoonish intro, to the American legal system.Grisham freely acknowledges in the text that he's winking at the way actual trials develop and play out. The time-frame in the book is impossibly compressed, and all the characters know it. But it helps that these are characters we've seen before. Most of them come from "A Time to Kill" -- written almost 30 years before this one, the book Grisham wrote and published before he became famous -- but, because Grisham has dipped in and out of his fictional Ford County locale before, we know a lot of the characters from his other, lesser books (most notably The Summons and The Last Juror). It's fun following Jake Brigance around the late 1980s (because 30 years may have passed for Grisham but only 3 years have passed in the town of Clanton), in a world before cell phones or Google or 9/11.The book mostly propels along in 48 chapters, none of which take more than 15 minutes to read. Grisiham covers a lot of ground that he's covered before -- if you've read 3 of his other books, there's not a whole lot that's new here. But, because we're back in the courtroom, it's arguably a lot more fun than some of his other recent "legal" thrillers that have had nothing to do with the actual law.

We’re back in Clanton, Mississippi, but this time with attorney Jake Brigance, protagonist of A Time to Kill. After local businessman Seth Hubbard hangs himself, Jake receives a letter that Seth had mailed on the eve of his suicide, asking Jake to probate a perfectly legal handwritten will, leaving most of his $20 million riches to his black housekeeper Lettie Lang. A court battle ensues, led by a passel of lawyers representing Seth’s two adult children and a few grandchildren. The handwritten will supersedes a more traditional will that divided Seth’s estate among the family members, and their attorneys set out to prove that Seth was not in his right mind when he penned the handwritten will, due either to the influence of his housekeeper or the pain medication he was taking for lung cancer. Jake seems to have the outcome well in hand, given that he’s very friendly with Judge Atlee, who is presiding over the case. However, Judge Atlee wants a jury to make the decision, and a mostly white jury spells trouble for Jake, especially after Lettie’s drunken husband kills two teenagers in a highway accident. His chances get even worse when the opposing attorney uncovers disturbing facts about Lettie’s employment history and Seth’s dalliances with women. Jake has an ace up his sleeve, though, that even he doesn’t know about until late in the game. I found this all made for an absorbing read, but I think it could have been so much better. Grisham should have withheld from us the existence of the two surprise witnesses that blow Jake’s case out of the water. Then the ambush would have had as much impact on the reader as it did on Jake. Also, the question throughout the book is why did Seth change his will, and Grisham throws some very large hints our way, so that the introduction of this information at the trial is anti-climactic. Plus, the critical evidence takes a circuitous route to the courtroom, and its detour seems entirely unnecessary, except to make its arrival barely in the nick of time. I hope that the lack of suspense in this novel is not a sign that Grisham is starting to phone in his legal thrillers. That would definitely be less than thrilling.

My friend Zack lent me the book shortly after I got out of stir. It’s the latest from John Grisham, and it’s about a lawyer doing time for a crime he did not commit (imagine that). By "got out of stir" I mean "quit my job and retired." I never did hard time.Malcolm was a small town attorney who did some legal work for an anonymous client and was subsequently caught up in the net when his client was accused of racketeering. He is halfway through a 10-year sentence in a minimum security (no walls, no bars), when he hits upon an opportunity to get out with a clear record. A federal judge has been murdered, and Bannister knows who did it. He plans to exchange this information for his freedom.If you read much Grisham you know the plot is not going to be as simple as that. There are mechanizations with the federal attorney’s office, the FBI, the federal judiciary and the witness protection program. There are also plots and schemes, some detective work and masterful evasions. And in the end there is money. A lot of money. Of course there’s sex, but not hard core.A more comprehensive review is here:https://skeptic78240.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/the-racketeer/

John Grisham is the master of the southern legal thriller, with well-known and best-selling books and films such as “The Firm,” “The Pelican Brief,” “A Time to Kill,” “The Client,” “The Runaway Jury,” “The Chamber,” and many more. “The Racketeer” is one of the newer books in that fine line. It is told in the first person, through the eyes and actions of Malcolm Bannister, a black, small town Virginia lawyer. While Grisham is white, he practiced small town law in Mississippi and has a pretty good feel for the South. The opening lines of the novel are, “I am a lawyer, and I am in prison. It’s a long story.” All three are true, especially the long part. Bannister was caught up in a money-laundering scheme of which he had no part. None-the-less, he was convicted, disbarred, lost his wife and family, his ‘good’ name, and is serving 10 years in the Federal pen, frustrated and angry, until fortune finally smiles his way. The corrupt Federal Judge who convicted him is murdered and he learns from another prisoner who did it and why. Bannister contrives an intricate plot to get himself out of jail, get his hands on the millions the Judge has squirreled away, and get his revenge on the system that sent him away. However, if Bannister started out as an innocent man, he is anything but at the end. It is a fun read, but long and slow in parts; and in the end it leaves a lot to be desired. The ending itself almost seems rushed, as if Grisham looked at the clock, or his page count, or got one too many demands from his publisher and quickly wrapped it up — too quickly, with a lot of ‘he did this, and then he did that’, The End.’ The story deserved better.William F. Brown is the author of 5 suspense novels with over 300 Five-Star Reviews: The Undertaker, Amongst My Enemies, Thursday at Noon, Winner Take All, and now Aim True, My Brothers.

,Back in the day, we called ourselves "BUMPYs". Somewhat like being a 'hippie'; being a 'BUMPY' meant that we were Black, Urban, Mobile, Professional & Young. We cracked ceilings in the professional world--movers and shakers as doctors, writers, CEO's--and yes, LAWYERS.Decades later, along comes John Grisham's The Racketeer. The novel is a well conceived and fast paced story of a struggling black attorney named Malcolm Bannister.Through a trusted connection, Esquire Bannister lucks upon a dream client who puts him and his tiny collection of partners on Easy Street. From that moment on, their firm's previously pitiful coffer multiplies with the swiftness of 'range free' bunny rabbits. What grows as well is the partners' criminal liability due solely to the source of that swelling coffer. Unbeknown to them, their dream client is a smooth operator who is always on the hunt for a patsy to wash funds derived from a host of illegal activities.At a Bumpy-filled luncheon hosted by the mayor, in marches a storm of FBI agents.They handcuff and cart away Bannister. The court prosecutes him,and then sends him to a minimum-security federal prison.What is it like for a hardworking young black man to fail after finally getting his ticket to the top? Grisham develops this character and his story, sensitive to the loss this wrongfully prosecuted--undeserving of such an ill fate-- black attorney must have endured.Every Bumpy by definition, subscribes to the adage of 'where their is a will, there is a way'. Every attorney by profession, knows how to push 'will' to find that way.Engaging his usual good storytelling habit, John Grisham foreshadows with plumb, and then works all of his setups to characterize a Le Suit Women's 3 Button Notch Collar Pindot Jacket and Skirt Suit Setgood man and the criminal world into which he is callously tossed. The Racketeer thus becomes an explosive ever-unveiling plot that dramatizes the effectiveness of daring to keep on pushing whenone's back is against the wall.Through a first person viewpoint writing, Grisham remains authentic as he gets inside of Malcolm Bannister's head. He loves when Bannister loves. The instance Bannister becomes underhanded, he becomes underhanded. When bad things happens to good people, how are good people likely to reach for a solution?No spoiler here. For the answer. check out The Racketeer. Yes, this John Grisham novel is a truly worthy good read. Where's your cup of tea?

The first question that comes into our mind after reading through the initial part of this book is about the title. Who is the racketeer? Is it the main protagonist, Malcolm? He is languishing in a jail, hating every moment of it, because he was involved in racketeering. The truth be told, he was caught unawares in the middle of a racketeering scheme. But now, he is looking forward to walk free by helping with the Feds solve the murder of a judge. So is the book about a wrongly convicted man yearning and working towards freedom? Yes, it is.Because of the way John Grisham narrates the story, we also tend to suspect there is more to the story than freedom. Possibly, there is an angle of redemption in it. If there is how? This thought grips the reader after he/she has taken up this book. This is also what makes this book a compelling read. You may be already familiar with the genre which has made John Grisham famous. This book doesn't belong to the genre that made John Grisham famous. It actually starts where most of his books end. That is to say after dispensing justice.Although John Grisham tries to provide a social commentary on justice system, ambition of the officials, greed of men and the prison system, the emphasis is on telling a simple story. Hence the social commentary is mostly hollow but helps to build drama and also makes a naive reader to choose sides. It was exactly what I was looking forward when I picked up the book. I didn't want a lot of twists and turns. A straightforward narration was good for me. At the same time, I also wanted to be surprised once in a while. That is exactly what I got.This is a good diversion from anything that has been eating your mind.

Classic Grisham storytelling. But suspend your disbelief at the door. The plot, with all the twists, is absurd; the characters might as well be extraterrestrials. Nevertheless, I was sucked in and read the whole book in a day.There are two subplots that are compelling. First, the power of the federal prosecutor and his minions is frightening. If the fed searchlight beam fixes on you, you're going to the slam. Second, a theme that I have often fallen asleep contemplating, is how does one walk out of his digital footprints and live outside the purview of the authorities? These days, given the resources of government, even the CIA director's trysts are transparent.

In this novel, you sometimes are not sure who to root for. Some nasty pieces of work, and some nasty things done to people, but sometimes people deserve what they get. And there is that big payoff that does not seem to legally belong to anyone. Finders Keepers.Malcomb Bannister was a small town lawyer in Virginia, struggling to get by. Then a "friend" in DC gets him involved doing the legal paperwork for a real estate transaction. It looks like a nice fee for his firm until someone starts laundering money through the trust account. His mistake at that point was being too honest. He could have grabbed a few million from the account and ran - transfer the money to Panama? - he could have sent it to an account of his own in the Seychelles. Instead he gets involved in a RICO prosecution. He is a small fish but gets snared in the net and ends up with a 10 year sentence in a federal prison where he becomes a jailhouse lawyer. Now he has a plan.This is a twisted plot. The FBI is trying to solve a high profile murder. Malcolm offers them a deal- the name of the gunman and his motive in exchange for a commutation of his sentence and a new identity (he knows things that they have no hope of finding out). Nobody trusts anyone else. Malcomb knows all the legal angles - he was not a jailhouse lawyer for nothing. Everyone ends up with a little something (except that one poor sod who was the gunman). Malcomb and a few choice friends end up with a lot. The wheels of justice sometimes go off the track.I must say that the plot was different than most mysteries, or legal procedurals if you prefer to call it that. You do get an inside look at prisons and jails. Walk straight - you don't want to end up in one, especially in a third world country.

Like most Grisham novels, the characters are well developed, you quickly learn to like and dislike them as the story requires. It is a very well written book with a tight plot, full of legal niceties you can take or leave as you please. The main story, as was the case in Time to Kill, is the relationships between black and white folk in the Deep South, with the secondary tale the legal story of a handwritten will and its subsequent challenge by the family who were cut out. There's a few twists and a not entirely unexpected twist at the end that fills a lot of story gaps and a detailed and somewhat dull trial. Overall, not as great as Time to Kill but a satisfactory and absorbing sequel with many familiar characters.

This is a story well read by Michael Beck, who also provides the narration for other Grisham thrillers. But the only thing I didn't like (and hence my three-star rating) is that sometimes the audio ended a disc in the middle of a chapter, forcing me to insert the next disc in order to hear that chapter's conclustion

Grisham is back! Really? That’s what I wanted to believe as well. At first, Sycamore Row is full of atmosphere: the southern little town, the colorful waitress, the flavorful dialogues. So I am happy to find Grisham again, and with a humor bonus on top of that, at least at first. Not that he is humorless in other works, but here the rural settings seem to stimulate his wit and sass, despite the morbid start of the novel and its important topic. We are in the 1980's, in a Mississippi little town where the sheriff and one of the judges tend to stretch the law one way or the other, and where racism has far from disappeared. Readers who know Grisham well have visited the place already, and met most characters in A Time to Kill, Grisham’s first novel. Here, a black woman is about to inherit millions from a white man at the expense of his family. Some issues arise from this. The duty to one’s family is one. A significant anti-racist statement is another. You could add this: the freedom to do what one wants with one’s own fortune. What is more important in life—the personal or the civic? What if the personal and the historic were one and the same? All these problems are posed, somewhat addressed, never really explored. Too bad. Sycamore Row could have been fascinating, the stuff of great literature, with such a title, too! But if it is gripping in the beginning and interesting in the end, what it is in the middle is too much like small towns and not enough like good writing: so dull and soporific that you want to get drunk with Lucien—the alcoholic and debarred lawyer of the novel. At the end of each one of his novels, Grisham usually addresses his readers, evoking the epopee of the writing of that particular book. Here, he tells us that his wife Renée, “was not too keen on a sequel” of A Time to Kill, which many readers consider his masterpiece. Renée, I believe you were right.

Grisham is a master at writing novels, but he's not with this book. The story centers on a man's will that is written to exclude all his family members and leaves the estate to non-family. I'm being vague in case you are planning on reading the book. This could have been a short story, there are so many fillers, like Brigance's house buying story line, Portia's studying to become a lawyer, and the drinking habits of an old lawyer, had these been left out, it would have been a short story - very short.The characters have depth as do all of Grisham's characters but the story line lacks an interesting plot. I kept waiting for huge "didn't -see-that-coming" ending that would get me to say OH WOW, but that never happened. There really is no plot, just alot of lawyers trying to jockey their side in the game of who legally inherits the money. It 's just an ok story not a great read and definitely not worth paying anything over $2I get frustrated when you pay good money for a kindle edition book from a very well known author who seems to have had a deadline in a contract and just put a lot of fillers in to give you 300 or so pages. It seems more and more popular authors are writing with a 'deadline mentality' . This is one of those books in my opinion. I like the author but THIS book - is not up to his standards and I am very disappointed. IMHO I say skip it there are too many other great books out there.

I got this book from Amazon as a bargain-priced eBook. I hadn't read a Grisham book in a long time, but I remembered the swift pace of his storytelling. Well, he is still a good storyteller, but what I didn't remember was that he was such a pedestrian writer. Some of his paragraphs were embarrassingly awkward, and if it had been a print book I was reading, I might have taken a red pencil to the text. I see that this is the second Jake Brigance story and he did make a number of inside allusions to an earlier story but I would certainly not rush out to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of Jake.Bottom line: If you have time to waste, this will fill the bill.

I enjoy reading Grisham even if many of his books are formulaic. This is a shame really because he has done some outstanding writing including The Innocent Man, one of the finest examples of crime non-fiction since In Cold Blood. I also thought some of his early works such as A Time to Kill and The Pelican Brief were very well written. This one seems a tad lazy although the character development is good the plot borders on boring. I guess I kept waiting for something to happen but it just meandered to a close. Not a bad read but nothing to get excited about.

It is written in a very different way from most "courtroom thrillers." But it was compelling and interesting, even if I was lost for a chapter at a time about why the protagonist was doing what they were doing. I had to have trust that Grisham would bring us into the overall story sometime in the upcoming pages.

In the Author's Notes at the end I think the author pretty much sums it up. This is indeed a work of fiction, and more so than usual. Nothing is based on reality, research was hardly a priority and rarely called upon. Accuracy was not deemed crucial. Long paragraphs of fiction were used to avoid looking up facts. Inevitably, though, even the laziest of writers need some foundation for their creations, and Grisham was occasionally at a loss.It showed in this book. I have read almost everything done by Grisham and this was one of his lazier works. Entertaining enough but knowing what he wrote in the Author's Notes above I might have passed on this one.

I had very high hopes for this book, since it was John Grisham. It was also highly recommended by a friend. It had me wanting to keep reading, to see what the next chapter would bring. However, I feel like a lot of the plot was predictable and the ending left a lot to be desired. There was a lot of long drawn out parts, that probably would've been better if it was quicker to get to the point. This book is written well, just not very exciting in my opinion.

DC area lawyer unknowingly plays a minor role in a money laundering scheme. He gets busted under RICO and is sent to federal prison. During his incarceration, he volunteers as a jailhouse lawyer, giving legal advice to fellow inmates. Halfway through his jail term, he gets the opportunity to assist the FBI with a case involving the murder of a federal judge. If handled correctly, his “inside information” (obtained during a jailhouse lawyer session) could solve the case and earn him an early release from prison.The first half of this book is very interesting, as the main characters of the story are developed and the plot is laid out (at least what you THINK is the plot).At about halfway through the book, the story gets a little wordy and bogged down with the mechanics of the federal witness protection program. But from there, the plot picks up again and keeps you glued to the pages (right to the end), trying to figure out where it’s heading and what’s going to happen next. The ending ties all the loose ends neatly together.Overall a good lawyer mystery. 3 1/2 stars

I have enjoyed many of Grisham's books but this one just didn't live up to his past efforts. I felt the plot was a little thin albeit different. It just didn't have the same intrigue most of his books have. This book is an easy read but not riveting.

This latest Grisham novel seems to follow the formula of 'The Firm' very closely: A trusting and somewhat naive small-town lawyer is duped into serving as an unwitting conspirator in a money laundering scheme and sent to federal prison by an unscrupulous corrupt judge. This judge, recently slain at his cabin, had a safe stuffed with gold ingots. There, at a low security prison camp, Mal the protagonist, meets s kindred spirit and cooks up a plot for each of them to be released from prison under Rule 35, i.e., helping law enforcement solve a different crime. His new prison pal has a sister to whom Mal, takes a liking, and she in cahoots with the other two, becomes a major player in the scheme. They are successful in outwitting the FBI, getting the money, and lease a yacht and head off to the Caribbean to bask in the sun until the cows come home (or the money runs out, which will be never).The biggest problem I have had with Grisham's last several books and this one included is that it sounds like a newspaper article or a report, or a shopping list. the sentences are very static and matter-of-fact: I did that, she did this, then we went there, etc. Perhaps it's been his style since the beginning, but if so, I never noticed in the early novels, and I've read every single novel he's written, well, except the Christmas one.I'll give him a huge amount of brownie points for knowing that the past tense of 'sneak' is 'sneaked' and not 'snuck'. I got a ruler over the knuckles in school for making that mistake, a few times, and so I never forget it, even if 'snuck' once not even considered a word, is now making its way into dictionaries, mostly American, for now, but others are catching up, and I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes common usage. It's a pet peeve of mine and it was almost a relief to see it in print again - a small thing...but I noticed it. He also knows the difference in applying 'lie' 'lay' 'laid' and 'lain'- again refreshing to see - and it shouldn't be. Just had to get that said.Although the plot was heavily formulaic, I found the details of this version just interesting enough to hold my attention, and I enjoyed it, mostly, but with skills of his caliber, it would be wonderful if he would sit down and write from the heart, something he believed in and was deeply proud of, something that would grip and rivet the imagination, stir up and magnify the emotions and elevate the spirit and send it soaring. He can do it, I'm certain of it, but these last several books seem written as if he didn't care, written almost grudgingly and perhaps even defiantly -perhaps to get his publishers off his back and to keep the pot boiling.Well, it is what it is, and his style is his own. More of the same, but that's not such a bad thing. I've liked it well enough to keep buying his books.

If you've ever wanted to slog through every tedious step of executing a contested will, this is the book for you. This book has no mobsters, no assassins, no stalkers, no FBI intrigue... Just lots and lots and LOTS of lawyers eating sandwiches and talking about a will. Somehow I made it through the whole thing, so I can tell you that all you need to read is the first 20 pages and the last 20 pages, and you haven't missed a single thing. The 600 pages in the middle are just filler. What a waste of time and, even worse, a waste of an opportunity to follow up with the cast of A Time to Kill.

Who wrote this? Not the John Grisham I remember. After taking a long hiatus from his books, I saw the high ratings and thought I'd give it a try. I kept expecting it to get better. How many times did we read a re-hash of the situation at hand? A white man hangs himself and leaves his surprisingly huge fortune to his black housekeeper and a tidbit to his brother, negating a previous will that had left his millions to his ungrateful (and boring) children. Jake Brigance is hired via a letter received after the man's death, that he is to be the lawyer for the estate, incurring the wrath and consternation of just about everyone from miles around. John or whoever ghost wrote it seemed to think that we didn't understand the elements of the situation so it had to be discussed with other attorneys, the cliched guys at the cliched cafe, the woman who inherited it, the angry children, the angry children's many lawyers, the judge, Jake's ex-partner, the daughter of the woman who inherited the estate, the townspeople, the sheriff, Jake's wife....no, I'm not exaggerating. EVERY. SINGLE.ONE of these people had a discussion about the outrageous will Jake was trying to defend. The same words were said over and over and over. I kept thinking, "SOMETHING has to happen!" and almost at the end, it did. I'm giving the story two stars because the story behind the inheritance is mildly interesting, and I actually found myself getting engaged in it. But the three quarters of the book that is filler pages, before the end, is anesthetizing. It's a hard slog.

The story started with a bang: great characters, great plot. After that it all went down hill with too much information that rambled all over the place. I kept reading it, but I guess I'm a slow learner since I realized some time ago that Grisham books aren't what they used to be. The ending was disappointing and made no sense. We spend hours reading only to have the story end with a questionable testimony that everyone seems to immediately buy in to. It felt like a poor short story that grew into a wordy-too-much-information book.

I'm a really big fan of John Grisham. I think that I've read just about every book that he has written. Well, the ones that have been out long enough so that I don't have to pay the new Amazon high prices for the new ones. That's a different story though (pun intended).I have to say that I was really disappointed in this one. It was more like reading a paper from a bored high school student that had to contain 'x' number of words. There just seemed to be a lot of filler in it. Sometimes the story (which wasn't all that interesting) went on and on. Then the ending just hit you and well, that was that.It's just not up to the quality of what I have come to expect from Mr Grisham. I've got to say though that I still really admire his principles in writing novels. I know that I can take my kindle to a doctor appointment or other public places (using the larger font),, and not being embarrassed by someone glancing over and seeing the page filled with cuss words or gross minute descriptions of some sex act. Keep up the high principles JG and I'll keep buying your books. Not everyone can hit it out of the park every time, so I look forward to your next book! Thanks again for your high principles!

First off, PLOT SPOILER ALERT!Observation #1: I found it completely unbelievable that witnessing the lynching of a man in his childhood preyed on Seth Hubbard's mind his entire life to the point that he needed to "get right" by leaving his estate to the surviving grandchild of that man. It's just incomprehensible to me. This book is set in 1988 when I am certain few white southerners would have batted an eye at the lynching, burning or beating of a black person. Sure, a child witnessing an event like this would have been traumatized momentarily but it would have passed as the child absorbed and eventually reflected the culture in which he was raised. Please note I am not saying this is acceptable, but I traveled extensively in the deep south in my teens and early 20s during the Civil Rights era and the ugliness and hatred I saw will stay with me until my dying day. In most parts of the south the Civil War has never ended and I doubt it ever will.Observation #2: This entire book could have been a short story if only Seth Hubbard had explained in his Will why he was making the bequest to Lettie Lang. Again, I guess we are to believe that 60 years after the fact he was still so overcome with shame over what his forebears had done that he simply couldn't bring himself to put it down in writing. Ain't buying it.I have read all of Grisham's books and will continue to do so, but this one just didn't ring true for me and I felt kind of skunked by the ending.

I am a big fan of John Grisham, especially his "A Time to Kill". When I heard 'Sycamore Row' was going to return to Ford County and star Jake Brigance again - I was thrilled!However, as other reviewers have posted: the ending was VERY predictable. I don't want to spoil the ending for anybody, but I wasn't even surprised at the 'revelation', because I had seen it coming. (and of course it had to be about race again, didn't it? I was a bit tired of the same old White against Black conflict. It had been wonderfully written and executed in 'A Time to Kill', but felt too much of a soft-washed copy this time around.)And although his writing is humourous and so very Grisham's style, it never really build up any suspense. I wasn't as enamored by this book that I couldn't place it down, the way I have been by other Grisham novels.At the end, I realized that the biggest joy I felt when reading this book was revisiting all those beloved and quirky characters from 'A Time to Kill'. It was so nice 'seeing' Jake Brigance, Harry Rex Vonner, Lucien Wilbanks etc etc again and knowing what had become out of them since the years that have passed in the setting from 'A Time to Kill'. So I felt nostalgic of 'going down memory lane' so to speak, but this aspect shouldn't have been the best part of the book. Sadly, it was.I still adore and respect the author greatly and will be looking forward to his future works.

After having read several excellent John Gresham books, I was very surprised to read the Racketeer and find that it was confusing, poorly thought out, and far below what I had expected from such a wonderful author. Maybe the author was contractually obligated to complete a book by a certain time, and quickly slapped something together to meet publication deadlines.

I think John Grisholm severely let his legions of fans down with this book. It seems to have been very hastily written as a platform for his opinion of the U.S. Government, The FBI and various State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies. All of these organizations are presented as filled with bumbling, vindictive incompetents while the hero (who happens to be an imprisoned, unsuccessful attorney) manages to out-wit everyone with his get-out-of-jail and get-rich-quick scheme.A book that requires a suspension of belief or facts or reality can still be a highly entertaining, enjoyable experience for a reader. I felt this one failed on all counts. Instead it impressed me as a device for a very angry person to vent his negative opinions about U.S. Government and Law Enforcement to a large audience. John Grisham has legions of fans, many of whom probably order his newest book at the earliest opportunity. My guess is that many of them will be very disappointed with this one, as I was.

Clichéd, cold, contrived, convoluted but crisp. It had been a while since I’d read a Grisham tale, and I quickly realized how much I’d missed the efficient writing style that kept me turning pages. However, I don’t think “The Racketeer” is Grisham at the top of his game. The biggest problem for me was that I never warmed up to any of the characters. The characterization, including the dialogue, seems below normal Grisham standards. The writing style was crisp, but almost everything else was cold and stale. Maybe next time.

My fist Grisham and a bit of a disappointment.It started out great. I really enjoyed the book till about half way through and then it fell flat.I did not like any character and for me to like a book there has to be someone, any one, with some redeeming qualities. There has to be a hero. There has to be someone I can root for. I didn't find a single person, or in-fact institution, that I can support. That was my biggest problem with it.I was hoping the protagonist Mal/Max can be that be it really took a turn for the worst.The way that the actual killer was set up and framed, even though far fetched (I'm actually okay with things being far fetched), was just so cold that it left me thinking "yeah this guy has done it but he hasn't really done anything to deserve being treated like this by Max when he hasn't done anything wrong with Max". This just made me dislike everyone else even more.The appearance of the girlfriend from the middle of no where was just ridiculous. Mal didn't even think of her till about 50% of the book! She felt a little forced to me.I think the only thing that kept me reading this book till the end is the first half. It was intriguing till that point then just got tedious.I hope my next Grisham is better than this one.

Spoiler alert- this review may give away critical elements of the story.The story was interesting in the beginning, so I gave if two stars. After that, it was so unrealistic, yet predictable, that I just could not enjoy the book. I don't think anyone could make a fool out of governmental agencies and walk away unscathed, the way this book's characters manage to do. Another weakness in the plot is that yet another Grisham protagonist winds up in the islands. Overall, this story reads like a high school student's stickin'-it-to-the-man fantasy. I only finished it because I kept waiting for Grisham to surprise me by finishing well, but I was disappointed.

This is certainly not one of Grisham's best and he knows it as he tacitly admits to in the notes at the end. It starts off well enough to engage interest and sort of keeps just enough of it but just never gets there. You never get the feeling of involvement in the book, characters or the plot but just a feeling of hanging in there and hovering around merely out of respect of the author, Because it is Grisham you have faith something will come but nothing ever does and sadly but inevitably you have to read it all the way to the end to confirm this.There is hardly any suspense or thrill. It really is quite predictable.I got quite annoyed with the endless and totally pointless descriptions of the search for and initial interactions with Nathan Cooley. Those acres and acres of pages were utterly boring and painful to say the least. The only slightly interesting twist/sting is the alliance with the guy who he caused to be arrested. His name has slipped my mind because the characters are not that memorable.Most importantly is that the author gives a very implausible account of being a black man. He does not in the least come out convincilgy like a black man that I wonder why he even bothered. It could still have worked just as well if he had remained white. Grisham just does not know how to be a black man.In fact at no point at all can he ever be imagined and comprehended like a black man except when he reminds you as he constantly does that you are forced to rememebr that you are reading about a black guy. Really? Quite pathetic.We expect so much more from Mr Grisham.

I hate to say this, but by far my least favorite Grisham novel. It felt like he was trying to recapture the story of A Time to Kill but instead gave us a dull legal story. But still, I will continue to read his novels - one miss out how many novels isn't too bad.

I have read nearly all of John Grisham's books and always enjoy the screen adaptations, but this one seemed as though someone else wrote it. It lacked "edge" and was predictable from the beginning. Compared to his other books this one was definitely not a page turner. However, it was educational as to just how tedious law research and practice can be.

I enjoyed this book and found the characters fully formed and fully flawed. Grisham , unlike many others in this genre, knows the trial process and is able to exploit its quirks and black holes for example the raw power of a trial judge. At the same time the plot moves the characters towards an unexpected but truly logical conclusion which answers why a bitter old man would disinherit his kids and leave a maid 20 million bucks.

I have read Grisham in the past and enjoyed his work. A Painted House comes to mind. This coming of age story was compelling and hard to put down. Sadly, Sycamore Row doesn't measure up to these standards. The premise is interesting enough. The family maid that inherits the family fortune? Grisham approaches the tale from a legal angle, his strength and one that usually works. There is also a lot of back story on the maid. Not a bad framework for an interesting story but this one plods along and fails to hold my attention. Not halfway through, I may or may not finish. Certainly not a good indictment of the book. While the price was cheap, I rue the purchase.

I have a really hard time believing that Sycamore Row was actually authored by John Grisham. I have to wonder whether it was largely penned by someone else and Grisham's name was slapped on it. The book does not read like Grisham *at all* and I cannot be the only one who found this to be the case. I have read every single Grisham novel to date. While some are clearly better than others, this one is just way out there in left field.Where to start. The pacing is off from normal Grisham. Perhaps one of Grisham's greatest talents is the pacing of his novels. This one was up and down, and the down parts were downright boring. I had to force myself to keep going at times and that is something I never experience with Grisham.The characters are two dimensional and uninteresting. In prior Grisham novels, his characters range from very real to so-so, but these characters have nothing to them, and they are not believable.The entire plot of the story becomes clear about half way through, and the remainder of the book is just a rote exercise in flipping the pages to get there. Again, not like Grisham at all.There are flaws in the plot and characters which do not reconcile.I could go on, but that's enough. Anyone who has read a lot of Grisham must be able to see that this is not him.

This book is great if you love being reminded in every chapter that Grisham wrote 'A Time to Kill'.The author cashes in his previous greatness and gives us a completely predictable story with zero depth to the characters. Add trite prose throughout the story, and I'm sad I didn't put the book down when I first realized the book is a bust (around chapter 15). Instead I completed the book, hoping that something unexpected or interesting would happen.From the author to the reader: Hey, I wrote a good book once. You should give me money and I'll waste a week of your life.

So far unbelievable. I don't know if I can continue to read this. I cannot believe that an attorney, even a small town attorney would not have any sense at all in receiving a wrong payment of several million dollars.First of all, the attorney says that after a gazillion changes in the name of the client (why doesn't that ring a bell? Why don't you know who you are representing?) the client was supposed to send him $450,000, $400,000 of which was supposed to pay the first 2 months rent. Now, first of all, why would the client pay rental for 2 months and then buy the property? Second, why send the rental to the attorney to pay the rental?Then he receives millions of dollars. And the book doesn't even say that these millions are put into an escrow account for the benefit of the client (but then of course, he doesn't know who the client is!). He doesn't contact the IRS, because I guess he never figures out that he could be liable for the taxes on several million dollars and that maybe, of course, the money is being laundered.Of course he is a small time lawyer and never heard of laundering money -- LOL!Then he finally instructs his banker to send the money back (although he still should have contacted the IRS), but the banker can't make up his mind what to do for 2 days..... HUH?THEN, he is offered a deal to plead guilty, but says he wouldn't accept it because he was innocent. He was NOT innocent. He accepted several hundred million dollars, put it into his attorney account (NOT an escrow account) and never contacted the IRS or any other governmental agency.Then, he writes to the FBI and says he knows who is the killer of the judge, and wants the FBI to release him (on his own recognizance) because he says he knows who the killer is. But, at the point in the story that I am, he gives no guarantees, gives no hints, gives no assurances that he would be returned to prison if he is wrong. BUT the FBI is interested.....? Why? Because the warden says he has been a good inmate.I am not an attorney (although was a real estate broker) and certainly know more than this dumb bum. I'll write more if the story gets any more believable. Otherwise I give up.

Sloppy, lazy, and totally lacking in plot creation or character development. Grisham was betting his name would sell this and pity the fool who took that bait,,,,me! For that he gets five stars. For the book, a negative zero!

What I recall from the book is the confusion of points of view. I may not be the best read person ever, but I had never encountered a plural point of view, when one character is narrating the events as if looking through the eyes of another and using "we" and "us" when the reader knows that these two characters are in different places, different countries even! Another thing is that these narrators kept knowledge from the readers... I felt manipulated and there was no joy for me in reading the story, no satisfaction in the outcome. Unless you are a diehard fan who will accept this kind of dismal effort in writing, this is not a worthwhile read.

There are a few things wrong with this novel.-- SPOILERS---1. The timeline is awkward in order to hold back vital information, but it simply doesn't work. It makes the narrator unreliable.2. The story is just simply unbelievable in every aspect. We are supposed to believe that Max did not actually launder money, that he is innocent, yet as soon as he is released from prison he knows exactly what to do and who to go to to launder the money and does. As an act of revenge, we are supposed to believe. That is only one unreal aspect of the novel. There are dozens like this. The first chapter he speaks about how he adores his son, is why he wants out, lives for him etc and then the son is only mentioned one more time in later chapters. His family relationships are like this as well. Dad is important in the 1st 1/3rd of the book but then only mentioned again one time.3. The money. Max initially gets 150k and talks about how he is now "rich" what? I didn't use a calculator, but it seems as if he goes through this money in about a week. When he hits the real jackpot, he seems just as impressed with it as the 150k.4. The relationship with Vanessa was just not well set up. We are told in the 1st half that he barely knows her, they share a few letters but that's it. When he gets out of jail however, the relationship goes from near strangers to intensely sexual and romantic and then she becomes a willing partner immediately. She leaves her job and does what he says and turns out that she was apparently in on the whole thing from the beginning, but that is never really made clear.5. It's boring. Mind-numbingly boring with no action, dozens and dozens of pages where nothing moves forward.6. None of the characters are really written so that you get to know them. Except maybe the one who gets the brunt of the punishment. The others, even Max, are 1 dimensional- unlikable and uninteresting.7. The biggest issue is that this is told in 1st person for most of the novel- Max is the narrator. Yet, Max tells us nothing. He is keeping the secrets from us, the reader, in order to add mystery but this does not work. This is a confessional style narration and he should be confessing everything, not playing us.It's just not a good book. I even bought the audio book AND the kindle and did the narration thing on the kindle HD because I could not stop falling asleep after 10 minutes of reading. It took days to get through this book- nearly 10. Gone Girl I finished in one setting, napping for a couple hours but then waking early because I.Could.Not.Stop.Thinking.About.It. Not my favorite book, but definitely a fast intense read. Hunger Games, I finished all three in a day.This took 10 days because I fell asleep so much. I would have just tossed it, but I am not the type that can leave a book unfinished. No matter how bad it is. And this one was bad.

Quite frankly, I was stunned at the 1,900+ five-star reviews, hailing this book as a "page-turner". I wondered if maybe I missed out on the "Page-Turner Special Edition" and instead accidentally picked up the "Slow, Plodding, Wish You Could Get Your Money Back Edition".But what exactly makes a page-turner?For me, I need someone to root for. I have to have some sort of emotional investment in the character and his or her fate. I have read nearly all of Grisham's novels, and I've always had this connection with his protagonists - even those who were terribly, deeply flawed.My relationship with Malcolm Bannister started off just fine. In the early pages, Malcolm is reminiscent of Stephen King's Andy Dufresne from "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" - professional, unfairly convicted, plying his former trade in the jailhouse to pass the time.But Malcolm began to lose me when two murders set into motion a sequence of events that he has clearly been anticipating for some time.The second murder was particularly horrific. As I continued reading, I found it hard to stomach that Malcolm was willing to leverage this tragedy for his own personal gain. And the less interest that I had in Malcolm's well-being, the less interest I had in turning pages.Had Grisham left out the more gratuitous murder, I might have maintained a little more sympathy and respect for Malcolm. But as it turned out, I did finally find someone in this book to root for: The Feds.

And waste of time. The author explains at the end of the book that he did no research for the story andit certainly appears that he made it up as he was going along,I find it insulting that he would actually admit to that - and expect people to admire his workI actually went to the back of the book to find out if there was a purpose to this story which is told in endless long paragraphs.Perhaps it was supposed to be a surprise ending - but what a flop.Perhaps the problem is that from the beginning I didn't care about the character and lost interest pretty quickly.I can't believe John Grisham actually wrote this -I would have to imagine it was published on his established reputation - if I had written it I wouldn't even have submitted it never mind expect to have it published.Badly written and badly executed.