'The Reckoning' by John Grisham

I picked up John Grisham’s ‘The Reckoning’ on a rainy holiday on the West Coast. I was captivated by one of his early books, The Client, and have been a drawn into the drama of legal thrillers more than once, in books and TV series. Yet I never intended to read his books again, until that rainy holiday.

The Reckoning provides an insight into life in the 1940s in Southern America. A world that rich white men rule with an entitlement nobody questions. Where rich white husbands can confine their wives into a mental asylum with a signature. Where black ‘staff’ are ‘members of the family’ for generations, working hard to remain in utter poverty. The right to remain in that poor house is a privilege and can be lost at a moment’s notice.

I’m not quite sure why I read the book. I didn’t enjoy it, yet I couldn’t stop. John Grisham can tell a story. He’s telling the fact, and the facts only - it’s up to the reader to imagine how those facts might have felt to the characters, what they might be thinking. The plot is comparatively simple - rich white war hero shoots church minister and goes to trial.

Yet, the question ‘what turns a good man into a killer’ - the subtitle of the book - is a question that the reader is as keen to answer as every character in the book. Throughout the book, which also describes the harrowing reality of Pete’s war years, the question remains, even as the question ‘is this a good man?’ becomes more prominent.

It’s not until the last two of the 498 pages that the question is answered. Which explains the reasons, and once again asks - what’s the definition of ‘a good man’?

A good holiday read.