A time for mercy by John Grisham
Book review with no spoilers
Courtroom thriller
Rating 4/5 alone and 3/5 in comparison to ‘A time to kill’
Fictional thriller genre
An unofficial sequel to A time to kill and Sycamore Row and many characters which we have come to like and recognise are present!
Jack of course is the lead and just like his previous two cases, is a sucker for cases no one wants and is on the verge of poverty!
A time to kill was the first Grisham novel and it was like an unofficial ode to ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ though a comparative analysis of both can be another blog or even a stand alone novel!
Sycamore Row was a passing case and nothing much to write home about
This sequel is stand alone but if you read the first two then a feeling of familiarity comes and you can also compare which is the best thing!
No spoiler here but if you have not read a ‘time to kill’ and do not know the final court scene ‘Now close your eyes and imagine she is white!’ Then stop reading and read the book or even watch the amazing movie simply for the gripping climax!
So while this is a standalone book, it is inevitable that it’ll be compared to a time To kill. So while the downtrodden or oppressed or the accused was a black father who killed his daughter’a rapist; here it is a teen who is accused of killing the abusive boyfriend of his mother.
Don’t worry that’s not the spoiler since it is the opening scene of the novel. The young shy boy finds his mother unconscious and unresponsive and shoots her boyfriend. The issue here is that the boyfriend is a cop and a good cop according to his colleagues! And there lies the conundrum!
Would you support a cop killer? Come Jack to the scene and then it’s a roller coaster ride!
Just like Sycamore Row; here also the case is thrust upon him though he gets lots of support from the judge. Of course he gets less of that from the cops but then you get some…
Some irregularities creep in though since initially Jack was not into the job and finally he ends up getting so involved so much so that it feels a little too much! Being a doctor or lawyer; the first thing you must do is to maintain a boundary if you want to have a life of your own. Jack gets so much sucked into the personal life of his client you will be shocked! Especially the end which may seem fairy tale but in real life it’s not!
Just like Time to kill; the court scenes are the best and there is a similar zing in the climax (double zing actually!) but the biggest let down is status quo! Can’t reveal that without spoiler so let’s leave it at that!
There was a strange sense of Déjà vu because of the recently released movie Dhrishyam and its sequel! Especially when the cops try to protect their own!
As far as continuity is concerned; even John states that he was too lazy to read his own previous books so he has just written as he remembered!
All in all a very good read and I am shocked at the rate which John writes novels like a factory! Already there are three novels after this pending to be read starting with The Judges list which is a sequel to his amazing The Whistler!
John slow down! Lemme catch up with you! Have mercy!
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