Sycamore Row

Sycamore Row is all the things I like in a John Grisham book. . I wasnt sure what to expect after The Racketeer. That was just bad. It seemed like it had been hastily slapped together by a writer with a contractual obligation and no enthusiasm. I always think of Grisham novels, along with graphically outlining the current ills of this country, as being about the Romance of Money. Theres always this huge pile at stake and usually wire transfers to the Cayman Islandswho will get ithow will they spend itwill they accept it at all. By the end we **** well know where every penny went and why. But its fun and you carehis writing puts you right in the room, hoping against hope the hero is going to pull it all off somehow. And by the end you hope all his salty old sidekicks manage to pull themselves together too. Just once though Id like to see one of his saintly elderly black women be the bad guy. Just to be fair.

Now, I know I'll probably get bashed for this, but this is one boring read. For me personally, it would actually be a 2.5-star rating as Grisham's writing is commendable, but he has written so much better stuff. Firstly, I didn't see why this had to be set back in the late eighties (did so many peop......more

Reading the first fifty pages of Sycamore Row I experienced two very different emotions. Firstly, and I can’t remember this happening before, I couldn’t help but grin as I lost myself in every page, in fact I wasn’t aware I was grinning until I heard my mobile ringing and looked away from the book –......more

Seth Hubbard was a wealthy white man. He was also dying of lung cancer. After months of suffering, he decided he’d had enough, so he planned his own suicide and one of his workers finds Seth hanging from a Sycamore tree, on his own property, in Clanton, Mississippi. Before his death, Seth Hubbard le......more

This review has spoilers. I could not believe how dull this book was. I haven't read a Grisham novel for several years and although I often had issues with his plot lines, his books generally held my interest. The story is absorbing at the start when a wealthy man in Clanton, Ford County hangs himsel......more

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 its own right. It's worth reading whether you caught ATtK or not. Having recently read another excellent courtroom......more