First let me say this is an excellent book. 

Second let me advise readers to read the author’s note at the end of the book. 

Third, pay attention to the news of the day. In Canada today we have a case where a so-called expert testified in a child death case and the babysitter was convicted of second-degree murder. Now new facts are emerging showing that the “expert” made an error and the babysitter is paying for that error. It happens. Innocent people are convicted on the testimony of so-called experts. Not often but it happens, and the innocent suffer.

So, it is a good thing that we have organizations committed to reviewing cases and using their limited resources to review and support those cases that seem to them to be questionable. That is what this novel is about: a group of three investigators, called “The Guardians” who accept cases that seem to fit the “questionable outcome” description. The man in prison is Quincy Miller, a young black man accused of murdering his lawyer. The guardian who travels all over the US South seeking new evidence and proving that the evidence at trial was rigged is Cullen Post, a lawyer and an Episcopal minister. This is an interesting and useful combination of specialities, especially since “the collar” gets Post in to places that he would otherwise not have access to.

The crime is an old one. The convicted man has been in prison for over twenty years. The facts are old; the trial seemed to be the end of the story with its conviction of the innocent Miller. But that is the nature of the work the small force of professionals at “The Guardians” face all the time. Not always successful but they have a good record of proving that incarcerated persons are innocent and must be released. 

Why suggest reading the author’s note first? Interesting how knowing that the novel, a fictional account of Cullen Post’s work to find the truth, is based on real situations from the world of the law, the courts, and the difficulty of opening cases and proving that errors were committed initially that have devastating results. Reading it first (I did not) will, I think, add a level of “my God this really happens” to the reader’s response.

In 48 chapters Grisham takes the reader along as Post works to solve this, and other, cases in his attempt to secure the freedom of his client. The chapters are well constructed (after al it is John Grisham) short and build to a crescendo of information. One learns a lot about court proceedings, evidence, and corruption while reading the novel. As I indicated at the start it is a good book and at most a two-episode reading experience – it is one, that to use that old cliché, is hard to put down!

As the reviewer in “The Washington Post” writes: “The Guardians” is Grisham’s 40th novel; he’s now 64 and has been writing suspense novels pretty much nonstop since “A Time to Kill” was published in 1989. Most of his novels are legal thrillers, but Grisham has also branched out into stories about rare books, sports and medicine. (His 2015 e-book, “The Tumor,” is about an experimental cancer treatment called focused ultrasound technology that Grisham champions.) Grisham has even written a YA legal series featuring a 13-year-old amateur legal eagle named “Theodore Boone.” (Source)

The book has it all: a ring of truth, a dangerous activity for the investigator, a corrupt sheriff, a plot that makes sense, and a believable outcome.

Ⓒ 2020 Bob Lane

Bob Lane is a professor emeritus at Vancouver Island University in BC.

Categories: Fiction

Keywords: Grisham, thriller