(Century, $55)I can still remember where I was and what else I should have been doing when I first read John Grisham. It was Wellington, 1992, and the book was The Firm. I could not put it down.
Here, Grisham – who has written many a bestseller since – turns his hand for the first time to non-fiction and the harrowing tale of Ron Williamson, a one-time baseball star who spent 11 years on death row for a crime committed by someone else while he was at home watching videos with his mother.
The police were so keen to tidy up this heinous rape and murder in the otherwise blemish-free town of Ada, oklahoma, that they basically cooked up the evidence against Ron. But not only did the cops let him down, the court did, too.
Despite a long (albeit often poor) history of treatment for mental illness, Ron’s competence to stand trial was never questioned – even when he ranted and raved like a madman at the judge. It was really only thanks to his adoring elder sister Annette – who has a huge heart and the patience of a saint, and never gave up believing in him – that justice was finally served.
Ron was released in 1999 and died five years later at the age of 51. Is The Innocent oan as much of a page-turner as The Firm? For many, possibly not, yet I still found it a hard book to put down because I love a courtroom drama and the fact that this one was true added extra zing. And speaking of extra zing, George Clooney has bought the rights to make it into a film.
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