Audio Books: Round 2

The Confession, by John Grisham

 

After I read Defending Jacob, my manager at the bookstore asked me if it was similar to any of John Grisham's books. I told her I couldn't answer that because I've never actually read anything by John Grisham before. His books have always seemed more like crime solving fluff to me. I swear, I'm not a book snob, and I won't judge you if you like his books, but that's just how I've always thought of them as being - you've read one, you've read them all type of books. But then I got thinking that maybe, for the sake of my bookstore customers, that I should read at least one Grisham novel. Because what if I try to sell someone Defending Jacob and they ask me if it's like John Grisham, who they just love? I can stretch the truth when talking about books to my customers, but I cannot flat out lie.

So, and I promise this is going somewhere, then one weekend shortly after I had the above conversation with my manager, I was heading out to Red Deer and decided I was ready to give another audio book a shot. (My first audio book experience was a total fail, but I am determined to find a place for audio books in my life.) I didn't have my library card yet, so I went to the nearest Chapters on the hunt for the cheapest audio book I could find, but that was also something I actually wanted to listen to. Well you know who's audio books are some of the most inexpensive? Yup, Mr. Grisham's. So, I decided on The Confession. Cheap audio book plus "work related research" equalled win, win.

Looking back, this really was a great choice for my second audio book. The plot was easy to follow and kept my attention. Did my mind still wander? Of course, but not nearly as often as during my first audio book. Audio books are hard! You really have to pay attention, and I naturally have a wandering mind. The Confession took me about 3 weeks to listen to (I only listened to it when I was in my car), and this was a HUGE improvement over the SIX MONTHS the first one took me!

In The Confession, the crime has already been committed, and the young man, Donté, who has been charged with murder is on death row, only four days away from his execution. Keith, a young minister, receives a visit from Travis Boyette who confesses to the murder that Donté has wrongfully been accused of. Travis claims he is dying of an inoperable brain tumour and has for once in his sorry life decided that he wants to do the "right thing" by confessing to the murder. The catch is, Travis doesn't want to go to the police because while he wants to do the "right thing", he also doesn't want to spend his last few living months in jail. (*eye roll*). For whatever reason, Travis has decided to trust in Keith in getting the truth to the right people. 

I have no sympathy for a murderer trying to do the "right thing".

So we have your whole "race against time" story. Is Travis too late? I mean, 4 days isn't much time to prove his confession and get Donté exonerated. Can we even trust Travis to follow through with his confession? Will Donté's fate be changed? Is the death penalty a fool-proof system? Hmmm, aren't you just dying to know all these answers?! 

I noticed after I was done listening to this book that I had purchased the abridged version! At first I was pissed because WELL WHAT DID I MISS? But then once I calmed down, I realized, for a book like this, it probably didn't make a difference in the overall experience of listening to a book like this.

Stupid unabridged books. Who reads you?!

Now, would I ever listen to or read another novel of Grisham's? Meh, Probably not. Or at least not anytime in the near future. Oh wait, that's a lie! I *might* read Skipping Christmas next month because I own it and I want to read something Christmassy this year. But that's it. I'm sorry you had to listen to me babble on, really about nothing, and not even get a recommendation out of this. Except! If crime thrillers (and I use that term veerrrry loosely for this book, because it wasn't really high on the thriller end), are your thing, then I totally do recommend Defending Jacob. I really quite enjoyed that one.

Defending Jacob, by William Landay

As a parent, what would you do if your only son suddenly became implicated in the horrible murder of one of his class-mates? This is precisely the question Jacob’s parents must answer. In the quiet suburban town of Newton, Massachusetts, Jacob’s father, Andy Barber, is a highly respected assistant district attorney. When the body of a 14-year old boy is found stabbed to death in the town’s park, Andy is immediately on the case. But the case is going nowhere fast and the police have no suspects and no leads. Then clues and details start pointing towards Jacob as the prime suspect and Andy is taken off the case. How well does Andy really know his own son, and just how far will he go to protect him?

Defending Jacob, by William Landay is told entirely from Andy’s point of view, so all we know is what Andy knows. There is a lot of foreshadowing at the beginning of the book, setting the reader up to believe that Jacob really did commit this horrendous crime, but we never really know for sure if he’s the murderer. The descriptions and details of Jacob and his personality set you up to think he is, but Andy’s unwavering confidence in Jacob’s innocence often has you second guessing yourself. Andy is often blind to the obvious sociopathic-like traits that Jacob presents with, but I imagine as a parent, it would be hard to objectively see your child in that way. 

What I found most interesting about the story was that while Jacob was an extremely unlikeable teenager and seemed completely capable of killing his own class-mate, you wanted him to be found not guilty for the sake of his parents. From the time Jacob was charged with murder, his parent’s life as they knew it came crashing down. They were ostracized by their friends and neighbours, their life-savings were stripped and Andy's career was at stake.  I wanted desperately for Jacob to be innocent just so his parent’s could hopefully, somehow, regain their lives back. 

I don’t have a lot of experience with reading legal dramas, but I really enjoyed this book. It’s a quick read at just over 400 pages because so much of the story is dialogue. The court scenes were engaging and it was just as exciting as watching a court drama on TV.  It was a suspenseful read for the most part, and I found the book hard to put down as you want to know - need to know - whether Jacob is found guilty or not-guilty.  But then, just when you think the case is over and a verdict has been reached, a curve ball is thrown at you and all I can say is, I still get goose bumps when I think about it. It was definitely not the ending I was expecting and I believe it took the book from your typical run of the mill legal drama to a steady-paced legal thriller.  

Defending Jacob is a story full of legal mumbo-jumbo, there's no doubt about it, but more than that, it explores the infamous nature vs. nurture issue, loosely reminiscent of We Need to Talk About Kevin. A definite page-turner, and a story that had me thinking about it long after I turned the last page.