It has been many years since I've read a novel by this author. They started to seem to me to be all the same. Not this one! This one is quite different. I really enjoyed it! and it was NOT predictable although I did guess the secret at the end.
STORY SUMMARY
The Banning family is well known through-out Ford County, Mississippi. Pete Banning, the father of Joel and Stella (now in college) and the husband of Liza Sweeney (now in an asylum) is the owner of his great-great-grandfather's cotton farm in Clanton. He has faithful servants: Ninevah who runs the household and her husband Amos who tends to the vegetables and animals and Buford his foreman. His sister Florry owns a few hundred acres as well and lives about a mile away on the vast property in her little pink cottage. Her servant is the faithful Marietta. Like all good black servants in the 1940s they know most of what goes on in the family.....and they keep it to themselves.
Pete is now home from the war and is considered a war hero among the townsfolk.
He is a faithful member of the Methodist church.
But one cool October morning, he walks into the church office where his pastor and good friend Dexter Bell is preparing his sermon, and shoots him dead.
The murder is shocking. There's no explanation and there doesn't appear to be any kind of motive. Pete only says to his lawyer friend John Wilbanks, and to the sheriff, judge, jury and family "I have nothing to say".
He isn't afraid to die and he takes his secrets and motive to the grave with him. He is found guilty of pre-meditated murder after a very short trial, and is killed by electrocution (the death penalty was allowed in Mississippi at that time in 1946) a few months later.
Now his son and daughter own the deed to the land and house.
And now Jackie Bell, the widow who is left behind with three children and a conniving lawyer from Georgia, wants the land as compensation.
What will happen to the Banning family?
Why did Pete Banning kill his pastor?
Will Stella and Joel ever find out??
MY THOUGHTS
This book was quite moving. I learned a lot about the southern culture in the rural areas of Mississippi during the 1940s. I learned even more about WWII and the role we played in the Philippines against the Japanese.
The book is divided into three main sections: The Killing, The Boneyard, The Betrayal
I did correctly guess what the betrayal was but it wasn't predictable all the way through the novel which I liked. At one point I thought it was going to go one way.....but it didn't.....yet...the people involved were different than what I was expecting.
The section that dealt with Pete and his time in the war in the Philippines was difficult to read. Very graphic and eye-opening. I didn't know to what extent the American soldiers endured at the hands of the Japanese. I found that section to be slow going but still a good read. It just took me time to get through it. The subject matter is a bit heavy.
The last section goes by very quickly.
The book centers around family dynamics, love, loss, grief, betrayal, friendship, and loyalty.
It touches on miscarriages and the emotional repercussions from that.
In true Grisham fashion, it does have his legal suspense but it also has that air of mystery due to the secrets/the "why" of the murder.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.
2 comments:
That sounds like I good book. I am going to look for it. I am currently reading a book about slavery in the sough, The House Girl. lI don't usually like books about slavery by this one is getting really interesting. Next up is a book for another book club I am in, also about slavery, called The Kitchen House. I hope it is as good as the one I am reading. I have heard good things. Merry, Merry Christmas Faith! I hope you will have the wonderful holiday you deserve!
I read this one it was good. I’ve read all of his except the newest which is The Guardian.
Post a Comment