The Innocent Man

John Grisham steps back from his tried-and-true courtroom dramas with this look at a real-life murder. Actor Craig Wasson narrates the story of ill-fated loser Ron Williamson, the man that a pair of small-town police detectives are convinced raped and murdered a young woman in 1982. Wasson is straightforward in his reading, seldom letting out the actor within. And like a newspaper reporter, Grisham uses a bare-bones factual approach that lacks the twists and turns of his novels. The listener will be outraged by the frailties of the criminal justice system portrayed, which is not as malleable as its fictitious counterparts, and more prone to error. Reality ain't pretty. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine