“A new John Grisham,” I cried. “I can’t wait!”
I should not have bothered. I have been a
fan for years and his cleverly thought out legal twists and turns have kept me
occupied for hours. This book, however, was not even close to being an average
work of his.
It starts off with a bang where we have
Pete Banning, a decorated WW2 veteran, who kills a local pastor and hands himself
in, with the words, “I have nothing to say.” During the time he is incarcerated
he does nothing to defend himself and is eventually executed.
The story goes back to Pete’s time in the
war and the Bataan Death March and goes into extreme detail about the torture they
endured and how he made it out. These scenes are terrifying and truly take the
readers through horrors. They don’t, however, point to why Pete did what he
did.
Before his execution we are introduced to the
sub-plots of his children and their journeys, the legal battle for his land as
well as how his sister fits into it, his wife’s mental illness and her forced
commitment to a hospital and the guesses as to why he killed the pastor.
In the last ten pages of the book all is
revealed and it’s literally a case of, “I waited for that?” While it may have
been shocking in those years, it doesn’t have the same impact now. The whole
thing felt disjointed, as though there were aspects to the story mapped out and
he knew they had to be inserted into specific areas but then . . .
Disappointing and one I wouldn’t read
again.
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