Book Review: The Confession

Last night I finished reading my first book on my brand new Kindle, "The Confession" by John Grisham. I've been on a John Grisham kick ever since I raided Mike's bookshelf (I recently reviewed the last book I read by him).

Synopsis:

An innocent man is about to be executed.


Only a guilty man can save him.

For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty one left on the outside. He doesn’t understand how the police and prosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesn’t care. He just can’t believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes that the mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in their case and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch the trial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relieved when the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police and prosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow an innocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to be executed.

Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.

Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess.

But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?

This is yet another excellent book by Grisham. Just when I thought I had the story figured out about halfway through, he threw in a twist that made me wonder what he would do with the rest of the book. You have to hand it to an author who puts what you assume is the ending right in the middle of the book, yet still keeps you completely captivated for the last 200 pages.

Grisham also explores racial tensions in small town Texas (the book is set in the early 2000's - a nod at the fact that those tensions still exist today). Maybe it's because I read it so close to my Martin Luther King post, but some of the themes of this book still really hit home for me. This is a must read book!


My next book is "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. As you may or may not know, a movie is currently being made about this book - it's due to be released sometime in April. I thought I'd get a jump start on the book before the movie comes out!