(Century, $55)
I was lying on a beach in Fiji and had two choices: the new John Grisham or the new Patricia Cornwell. I’ve been a fan of both writers for what seemslike forever but Port oortuary by Patricia Cornwell (Little, Brown, $39.99) won in the end. It was a paperback, so easier to hold up.
A hundred pages in, however, not much had happened, apart from a lot of acronyms (AFoE, ooRT, SWoRDS and DARPA, all on one page) so I abandoned forensic crime in favour of the old-fashioned type.
The Confession by John Grisham gripped me from the word go. A tattooed ex-con wanders into a small town church and tells the vicar he committed a crime someone else is to be executed for.
From then on it’s a race against the clock. The vicar has to believe the ex-con, the about-to-be-executed man’s lawyer has to believe the vicar, the powers that be have to listen to the lawyer and only then will an innocent man be saved from wrongful death.
Even on holiday in Fiji I felt the heart palpitations as if I were waiting on death row for the life-saving phone call.
I remember that feeling from when I read The Firm nearly 20 years ago and John Grisham can still do it.
The Confession is an absolute ripper.
After I finished it, I returned to Port oortuary and having sated my thirst for essential page turning, I read and enjoyed it. But it’s an entirely different sort of read. Not much happens for quite a while and I didn’t always understand what happened when it did, but nonetheless, I think Patricia Cornwell still has it too – if you like the forensic nitty gritty.
Here’s the big difference between the two writers: John Grisham states that he hates research so routinely makes things up, while Patricia Cornwell states that AFoE, DARPA and SWoRDS actually exist, as do all the medical and forensic procedures you read in her books.
Both are masters in their chosen fields.
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