The Confession

Grisham's latest legal thriller involves a lawyer and a preacher who are seeking evidence to exonerate a man on death row for a grisly murder. As the clock ticks, Travis Boyette suddenly appears, making everyone question who the real killer is. Scott Sowers differentiates the main characters--from the deliberate Boyette to the troubled prisoner. Sowers gives a believable Texas twang to many of the characters, including the frustrated defense lawyer and his cadre of opponents. He uses his clearest voice for the Reverend, who finds himself caught in an ethical quandary. This is Grisham at his best, winding a lawyerly tale about personal ethics, criminal justice, and religious values, and the narration is equally well crafted. M.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

November 1, 2010
Grisham's recent slump continues with another subpar effort whose plot and characters, none of whom are painted in shades of gray, aren't able to support an earnest protest against the death penalty. In 2007, almost on the eve of the execution of Donté Drumm, an African-American college football star, for the 1998 murder of a white cheerleader whose body was never found, Travis Boyette, a creepy multiple sex offender, confesses that he's guilty of the crime to Kansas minister Keith Schroeder. With Drumm's legal options dwindling fast and with the threat of civil unrest in his Texas hometown if the execution proceeds, Schroeder battles to convince Boyette to go public with the truth—and to persuade the condemned man's attorney that Boyette's story needs to be taken seriously. While the action progresses with a certain grim realism, Schroeder's superficial responses to the issues raised undercut the impact. As with The Appeal, the author's passionate views on serious flaws in the justice system don't translate well into fiction.