The Reckoning
The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller
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3.8 • 31 Ratings
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- €5.99
Publisher Description
A SMALL TOWN. A BIG MURDER.
A man is dead - and nobody knows why.
One morning in 1946, Pete Banning - war hero, pillar of the community and faithful member of Clanton's Methodist Church - drives into town, walks into the church and calmly shoots Reverend Dexter Bell in cold blood.
In the years following the murder, Banning's only statement is: 'I have nothing to say.' The sheriff, his defense attorney, the judge and his family and friends are all left in the dark.
What drove this man to murder has haunted Clanton for decades - and now, a reckoning is coming...
💥350+ million copies, 45 languages, 10 blockbuster films: JOHN GRISHAM IS THE MASTER OF THE LEGAL THRILLER💥
Readers are raving about The Reckoning:
'Epic!' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Excellent'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'John Grisham is a wonderful storyteller'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Outstanding'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'A must read!' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We love John Grisham’s masterful legal thrillers, but we’re not sure anyone expected him to deliver this unusual kind of lean, hardboiled murder mystery. Pete Banning, a stoic cotton farmer and wartime vet, is a pillar of his ’40s Mississippi community—until the day he commits a shocking crime and refuses to reveal his motive. Grisham’s storytelling jumps back and forth across Banning’s life, unraveling a complicated family history, the horrors of the World War II Pacific theatre and the flammable racial dynamics of the small-town South. The Reckoning reminded us of Jim Thompson’s southern-fried noir mysteries…and there’s no higher compliment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Why would a respected war hero cold-bloodedly gun down the local pastor? That's the central mystery in this subpar outing from bestseller Grisham (The Rooster Bar). One morning in 1946, Pete Banning, a WWII vet and Ford County, Miss., cotton farmer who recently committed his wife, Liza, to a hospital, accepts "the solemn reality that it was time for the killing." After having breakfast with his sister, Florry, Banning drives to the Clanton Methodist Church, where he shoots the Rev. Dexter Bell three times at point-blank range. He then aims his weapon at the black man who cleans the church, Hop Purdue, before sparing Hop's life and instructing him to fetch the sheriff. Banning offers no resistance to his arrest and no explanation for his actions to the sheriff, his defense attorney, or Florry. He refuses to allow his attorney to plead insanity, or even to ask for a change of venue. It seems that the shooting may have something to do with Liza, but Banning's motive is only clarified late in the book, and that revelation doesn't make it easy for readers to empathize with him. Grisham fans will hope for a return to form next time.)
