The Reckoning by John Grisham

Being a collector and fan of the legal John Grisham thrillers, I have to say that by far, this is the worst one I have read.

The book is split into three parts with the opening part starting with the perpetrator, Pete Banning, killing Dexter Bell, the local preacher. At the outset, there is no need to speculate as to who committed the crime. The second part, which is over 120 pages of the book, reads more like a historical account of battles during World War Two. Being a fan of historical fiction, this was a pleasant, if not unexpected, surprise, but it was a real struggle to wade through in all honesty. The final part follows Banning’s family post trial.

The book is misleading from the jacket cover. Yes there was a murder and yes there was a trial (barely), but being a John Grisham book, it was lacking everything that you would expect to find. I persevered with this book as I was hoping for an interesting resolution as to why Banning committed the murder, but unfortunately it never came. We do finally learn his motive within the last few pages of the book but it was predictable.

I have rated this book as 2 stars purely because it was written by John Grisham.

Bewitched By Books Rating: ⭐️⭐️