Review: The Confession

The Confession by John Grisham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book is divided into three sections--the crime and arrest, the last minute efforts to put a stay on the execution of an innocent man, the aftermath of the death. While the first two sections were interesting they were excessively long, repetitive and ultimately boring though the result was heart-breaking and the situation from the very first unbelieveably mishandled and manipulated. It was difficult to read--not so much because of the story line which was engrossing, but because the need to make a book of 400 pages rather than 250 created a desire to just get on with it. The last section, the aftermath--what happened with the victim and her family, the second victim and his family and all the legal beagles and politicians as well as the real killer--was interesting and was read quickly. The sense that none of it--the book, the crime, the resolution--resulted in any real change was the keaviest blow of all and unfortunately more real than fiction.

The low star rating was primarily due to the writing rather than the plot or message. Padding with excessive prose to create the proper length for " literature " does not always work. He's written better books.

View all my reviews