The Confession by John Grisham

Lately it seems Mr Grisham's novels have been more off than on, but I'll have to give him credit on this one...it made me think about my own feelings towards capital punishment. Not saying I've changed my opinion necessarily, just that I am more open to possibilities.
Grisham pretty much captures (though at times heavy-handedly) the good ol' boy network that is Texas politics and law. Rather than painting a picture with a fine detail brush, he rolls it on thick. One can easily tell the author's slanted point of view on Texas and Texans by his condescending tone on topics such as "everyone" carrying concealed weapons, the ubiquitous pickup truck, Friday night football above all else, and the lack of a requirement of a dead body to prove guilt in a murder trial. (Yeah, I didn't know about that one either.)
The action centers around the trial of Donté Drumm, an innocent black football player wrongly accused of raping and murdering a beautiful, blonde cheerleader classmate. (Stereotypes, anyone?) Though friends in and out of school, the two had never had any other kind of relationship. Lies by the girl's ex-boyfriend lead police to arrest and beat a confession out of Donté, one that he later recants. But the cycle of lies has already started. The fictitious East Texas town of Slone quickly assumes Donté's guilt, and a carefully orchestrated all-white jury convicts and sentences him to death. Years go by and it is only days until his execution when out of nowhere, a recently released convict, Travis Boyette, shows up in Kansas confessing responsibility for the crime to a local Lutheran minister. Lots of personal moral issues arise. Should the minister betray confidentiality and inform the authorities about this confession? Should he follow his gut, leave his family, and take Boyette to Texas in hopes of exonerating Donté Drumm? Will aiding a criminal in breaking parole and committing a felony in the process lead to damaging public outcries, loss of his job, or even imprisonment? How can he sit back and do nothing while a supposedly innocent man is put to death? These questions and more are going through his mind, and therein lies the story.
Will Reverend Keith deliver Boyette to Donté's law team in Texas? Will the governor or Appeals Courts step in with a stay of execution while the matter is investigated? Will the body of the murdered cheerleader ever be found? How will all these issues affect race relations in the small town of Slone? You'll just have to read The Confession and find out.
A couple of issues with the author.... Even though he plainly states in a note at the end of the book that he detests research for his novels, a couple of minutes on the Internet would have saved him a lot of embarrassment with anyone who knows the least little bit about Texas. Namely, our state rock is pink granite, not red, and that is what the capitol is made out of. Also, when you are driving south on I-35 out of Oklahoma, and you hit Sherman, you don't turn west on Highway 82 in order to get to east Texas. The rest of the descriptions are fairly accurate. Actual place names--Paris, Mount Pleasant, Longview, and Tyler, for example--add to the realism, as does the description of our own Governor Goodhair, although in the book he has a different name than we're used to seeing. Unfortunately, his actions and attitude in the story speak volumes as to who is being described.
I won't say this is the best thing Grisham has ever written, and it isn't my favorite by a longshot, but it certainly seems to be touching a nerve with some people. One friend got so upset by the actions of a character that she refused to read further until she had calmed down over a period of several days. The book is written for an adult audience and would be suitable for high school age or older. There's no sex, but some expected foul language. Mostly it's about doing what is right even when it feels uncomfortable....and that's a lesson we all could use.