The Confession by John Grisham
Century, $55
John Grisham clearly felt deeply about this book - perhaps because he's recently become concerned about wrongful convictions, and the treatment of that theme here has a very passionate edge.
Although he has dealt with the countdown to an execution before in The Chamber, a similar plot device here has produced even more focused results. Grisham has translated his thoughts about what a real killer may be thinking and doing into an unsettling narrative, as the last hours of life ebb away for an innocent man.
The story is set in Texas at the end of the last century. Travis Boyette is a deeply unpleasant man, unhappy with his worthless life. He is seduced by the thought that some small measure of comfort may be found by terrorising and subjugating another human being. His victim is to be a popular girl, a high-school student. He abducts, rapes and murders her before hiding her body. Any fears he may harbour about being tried for the crime vanish when an innocent man, Donte Drumm (where does Grisham find his names?), is arrested. Drumm, a football star, is the prime suspect and is convicted.
Nine years pass on death row, and the stays of execution for Drumm are exhausted. He is to die in four days. But the killer, Boyette, has had a change of heart - a brain tumour and his own imminent death have persuaded him that he must make a clean breast of the murder. But is it too late?
The Confession may be an airing for the beliefs of the author, but it is also a page-turner. Grisham is careful never to preach. He is much exercised by the fact men have died in miscarriages of justice, and has pointed out that DNA evidence is forcing people to look again at such cases. His novel suggests that Americans have become addicted to the speed with which conviction and execution can be carried out - and that opportunities for more careful consideration are too quickly passed over.
It's this motivating force which makes this book one of the more personal Grisham has written, even though he never forgets his primary purpose is to entertain.
- INDEPENDENT
