The Confession by John Grisham

The Confession by John Grisham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - over 3 days

Pages - 418

Publisher - Doubleday

Source - Charity Shop

Blurb from Goodreads

An innocent man is about to be executed.
Only a guilty man can save him.

In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, Travis Boyette 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?


My Review

Travis is a bad man, he has served time in jail for some heinous crimes, he is a sexual predator, violent and aggressive. Upon release Travis seeks out a priest to make a confession, he is dying and an innocent young man is about to be executed for his crime. There is a lot to lose, the police force investigation, the prosecutors, did the young man get a fair trial, is he innocent and who believes the word of a convict.

Ooft this book will enrage, upset, anger and get the emotions flowing, a young black man accused and charged with the murder of a young white woman. As the book progresses we get to hear about the investigation, what they did, what they said, betrayal, racism, regret, love, loss, depravity, friendship ooft so many themes. I read this on holiday and I think everyone at the pool knew what was going on as I kept raging and getting angry.

Whilst this is a work of fiction there has been many cases similar in themes to those that are featured in this book and I think that is what got to me. I felt so angry and emotional at so many parts of this, the racism is horrific, the actions of some of these characters or lack of gave me heartburn. I haven't been this ragey emotive about a book in years, I absolutely recommend it but with caution, sexual deviancy, death row, racism, violence are just the top layer of the onion. 4/5 for me this time, a book that will boil your blood and keep you hooked page after page.

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