On the other hand, The Tumor stands to be his most important piece of work, as the author himself points out. It’s a brief narrative meant to promote awareness of potential new medical treatments.

John Grisham's A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial - a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.It's a different kind of law than what we usually get in courtroom novels. It centers around a holographic will handwritten by a man on the eve of his suicide by hanging (from a sycamore tree, a fact you should keep in mind). It's established pretty early on that his kids, son and daughter, don't have much time for the old man, so you won't be surprised to learn they don't make out too well in this will. And of course, there's an earlier will out there, all lawyerly and notarized, in which the kids fare much better. Which will wins? Read on. I really seem to love almost all of Grisham's books. I keep waiting for one I will not like at all but it has not happened yet and somehow I think this is one author where that is not going to happen. Seth Hubbard’s testimony at the trial is recorded. It turns out that Seth and Ancil’s grandfather, Cleon Hubbard, stole land from Lettie’s unknown grandfather, Sylvester. Cleon had Sylvester lynched on a tree and then burned down his houses so he could take over his property. All sides decide to have a jury trial to determine if the handwritten will is legal and binding - that is, if Seth was of sound mind when he prepared the will and not unduly influenced by Lettie. If not, a previous will - which benefitted the family - would be enforced. While preparing for the trial one of the Hubbard family lawyers unearths information about Lettie's past and about Seth that he thinks will derail Lettie's claim. He cleverly (and unethically) maneuvers to hide the information from Jake until the trial is well under way.

This series depicts the life of Lacy Stoltz, an aspiring female investigator who works for the Florida Board of Judicial Conduct. Interestingly, she is a lawyer, not a detective, and it is her job to deal with judicial misconduct charges. Before and during the trial a big question in everyone's mind (both the characters and the reader) is 'why did Seth do this'? Eventually, this question does seem to be answered. Still, I kept thinking 'Seth could just have given Lettie the money before he committed suicide and saved everyone a lot of bother.' Why he didn't do this is never satisfactorily answered (for me, anyway). That's not to say it's perfect. It's totally predictable, and folks get lost in the huge cast of characters. Still, it's the best thing Grisham has written in a very long time.I've read the precursor to this book, A Time to Kill, but don't remember much about it - it was a long time ago. What I do know is that this is a brilliantly crafted courtroom drama in it's own right. It's worth reading whether you caught ATtK or not. Having recently read another excellent courtroom yarn, in Michael Connelly's latest offering The Gods of Guilt, I had little hope this would compare favourably. I was wrong, it's as good if not better. To win the case, Jake decides to avoid mentioning race. The jury would be mostly white and he wants them to focus on the case rather than Seth Hubbard’s will. He’ll argue that Seth Hubbard was rich and could give his money away if he wanted to. However, after Lettie’s husband gets into a car accident and kills two teenagers, everything changes. The themes of “A Time to Kill” include southern culture, racism in the 1980s, deception, and forgiveness. It is written from a third-person point of view. The book begins with Seth Hubbard choosing to end his life by hanging himself on a sycamore tree in Clanton, Mississippi.

Ethics are determined by what they catch you doing. If you don’t get caught, then you haven’t violated any ethics.” Even accepting those choices Grisham made, I had serious issues with the story. It was too much like A Time To Kill. I enjoy the characters of Lucien and Harry Rex, but they felt a bit stale because there was no change in their relationships. Race was again the driving force of the narrative, but somehow in a scant three years, the n-bomb count in Ford County dropped from about 1,000 in A Time To Kill to 2 in this book. Either Mr. Grisham decided he was no longer comfortable casually mixing in that word, or he’s decided his original depiction was historically inaccurate (I’m guessing it’s the former). Most of all, I thought the answer to the question of why Seth Hubbard left his estate to Lettie Lamg was telegraphed from very early in the story, so there was less mystery than there should have been.

Theodore Boone Series

In a letter mailed just before he died, Seth asks attorney Jake Brigance to fight to the death to preserve this new will..... And now comes “A Time for Mercy.” You get the feeling that Grisham, who has written several dozen books by now, has returned to the place closest to his heart. Thirty-one years have passed in the real world since we were first in Clanton, but only five in its fictional life. What happens in a time for mercy? The Camino series’ plot revolves around a fictional island resort in Florida. The caper stories filled with rare valuables and hot pursuits stray away from Grisham’s well-known legal thrillers and offer a fresh perspective.

This was a great book and interesting to read. It was another hit for John Grisham in my opinion. Well developed characters, old and new, and a sharp dialogue.

The narrator shows that Seth’s family is a bunch of jerks. They’re loud, mean and racist in their own way. They only care about money and don’t really love him for who he is or what he does. The prosecution then calls two witnesses. One hints that Lettie changed the will to get Seth to have sex with her; the other claims she had a plan to take advantage of old people. It looks like Jake isn’t going to win this case. The USA of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century would probably like to view itself as a post-racial society. But John Grisham's SYCAMORE ROW, a superbly told, moving and completely compelling story, portrays deep south rural Mississippi as anything but. The drama of the civic trial testing the validity of Seth Hubbard's will manages to be at once banal and work-a-day as well as totally gripping. And the conclusion, well, you'll have to read it for yourself. You'll realize that John Grisham could not possibly choose the enormous cop-out of having a mistrial declared without killing the novel entirely so you'll also be aware that he had to choose one side or another.