The Reckoning
The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller
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3.8 • 47 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
'I couldn't help thinking of Harper Lee's great American novel To Kill a Mockingbird while reading The Reckoning . . . [Grisham] knows how to spin a yarn' - Chicago Sun-Times
'May be his greatest work yet' - David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon?
Pete Banning was Clanton's favourite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family; a farmer, father, and a faithful member of the Methodist Church. Then one cool October morning in 1946, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the Church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell.
As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends, and to the people of Clanton - was 'I have nothing to say'.
What turned Pete from a pillar of the community into cold-hearted killer? And why won't he confide in anyone? All his closest family knows is that it must have been something devastating - and that the fallout will haunt them, and the town, for decades to come . . .
Further praise for The Reckoning
'Beautifully constructed . . . weaves a truly magical spell' - Daily Mail
'In this saga of love and war, John Grisham has given us a sprawling and engrossing story about a southern family, a global conflict, and the kinds of secrets that can shape all of us. From the courtrooms and jails of rural Mississippi to the war-torn Pacific, Grisham spins a tale that is at once entertaining and illuminating' - Jon Meacham, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of America
'John Grisham is the master of legal fiction, and his latest starts with a literal bang - and then travels backward through the horrors of war to explore what makes a hero, what makes a villain, and how thin the line between the two might be' - Jodi Picoult, internationally bestselling author of A Spark of Light and Small Great Things
'When a master of storytelling and suspense takes on one of the most wrenching stories in history, the result is a book that will break your heart, set your blood pumping and your mind racing, and leave you gasping for breath by the final page. I'm still trying to recover from The Reckoning' - Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic
350+ million copies, 45 languages, 9 blockbuster films:
NO ONE WRITES DRAMA LIKE JOHN GRISHAM
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.)
