Book review: The Confession by John Grisham

I have always been a big fan of Grisham books. I've read most of his books except those that were not law-related (don't ask me why, I just want to read the ones that are law-related). I've always felt that the fact that he's a lawyer himself adds a degree of credibility to the books he's written. I'm not saying that one has to be a vampire to be a successful author on that genre.. What I'm saying is that because he's a lawyer, he knows what goes in the minds of the lawyers he's writing about, know what I mean?

Here's a summary of this book written on John Grisham's website. It details what the book is all about:

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?

Pulls you, doesn't it? The summary should also say how Travis enlists (or manipulates? take your pick) the help of Reverend Keith so he could drive him from Kansas to Texas in a race against time to try and save Donte (the innocent teenager who served Travis' sentence for him) from the death penalty. Did they succeed? Won't say..

The book may have been used as a platform of the author's view about the death penalty. But aren't most, if not all, books serve as a voice for something authors feel strongly about? Personally, I don't agree with the death penalty. What if the system ends up executing an innocent person? You can't take it back, you can't apologise and say 'oops!'.. Also, I think governent-sanctioned killing of criminals takes away their chance for redemption, their chance to change.

The book is fiction but you can't help but feel and know that this happens in real life. Innocent people do get sent to jail and are sentenced/punished for something they didn't do. You'd think that if the system is going to send someone to the death penalty that the people involved would have exhausted everything in their power to see that justice is indeed served. But no. Sadly, the characters in the book that sealed Donte's fate exists in the real world. Characters like the judge, the prosecutor and the detectives that don't think twice about circumventing/manipulating the law just so they could get a 'win'. Characters like the elected official who couldn't care less about the case except when it puts him on a good advantage to get votes for re-election or higher office. Characters like the TV guy who also couldn't care less about the innocent man in jail as opposed to making sure he gets high ratings. Even the characters who were racist and didn't care that the circumstances of Donte's imprisonment were more than a bit questionable.. It's all sad..

Luckily, the book also makes you feel that all hope is not lost when you have characters like the reverend and his wife who were willing to make sacrifices to save another person's life. And then there's Robbie Flak, the defense attorney who went all out to prove his client's innocence. There were also the boys in the football team who made a small gesture that spoke volumes. They also exist in real life and you can't help but admire them.

As for Travis, he's despicable.

If I had one thing to point out in this book, it is its lack of notable twist and turns. The characters are who they are when you first "meet" them.. Sure, there was a bit of a deception with Travis, but it was more or less expected because he wouldn't have survived that long if he didn't know how to fake a lot of things about him. It is a page-turner, don't get me wrong, but it's got a what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach to it so you know who to blame and who are in the right.

All in all, I'd say it's still a good read. Til then!