The Guardians, by John Grisham
Random House Audio - 2019
Thriller - Legal
Audiobook
Narrated by Michael Beck
Thriller - Legal
Audiobook
Narrated by Michael Beck
11 Hours, 50 Minutes
You can always count on Grisham to deliver consistently gripping legal Thrillers, and this book was one was one of my favorite Grisham books that I have read.
A lawyer working late one night is shot and killed at his desk. A young black man named Quincy Miller - a one time client client of that lawyer, is charged, convicted, and sentenced to die for the crime. Though no one believed him he proclaimed his innocence for the next twenty-two years, until a letter he sent to a small non-profit innocence project called Guardian Ministries pays off and they take his case. His new lawyer, Cullen Post - who is also an Episcopalian minister, works on a shoe-string budget, tirelessly digging into the twenty-two year old case to try and exonerate his client. All this time later though, there are still people with an interest in the case. They want Quincy's verdict to stand, and they would have no problem seeing another lawyer dead to keep it that way.
There is no arguing that Grisham knows how to write a legal thriller. Not only has he written Quality legal thrillers that saw the top of the book charts (some of his better known early works made into block-buster movies as well), he has also produced an impressive quantity of books (The Guardians being his 40th according to his website). Often when an author becomes prolific in their writing, the quality suffers somewhat. In the case of this book, I can see no evidence of that. I still got pulled into the stories of Quincy and Cullen right away and every time I had to put it down I was always eager to get back to the story and find out what happened next.
The characters in this story were particularly engaging.
The trope of a potentially innocent person rotting in jail for a crime they did not commit is not new, but the fact that Quincy had spent so much time on death row and was so close to being actually executed made it more intense. The sense of injustice the reader develops thinking about twenty-two years combined with the sense of desperation as Quincy has come so close to meeting his execution makes for a certain intensity.
As characters, people often see lawyers as rich, entitled, or elitist, but Grisham has a way of making his lawyers likable and relatable to all his readers. In The Gaurdians, the character of Cullen is no exception. He is not rich or entitled, and far from having an elitist attitude. Champion of the "under-dog" he lives more modestly than most people, and works for the benefit of lower-income, wrongly accused people persecuted and long forgotten by "the system".
Narration was performed by Michael Beck and was flawless. Portrayal of emotion was in keeping with the story, and it was easy to follow character changes. Tone and cadence where pleasant yet lively when the story called for it.
In the author's notes, Grisham tells us that this story, while fictional was inspired by a true case of wrongful conviction. In fact, Grisham has authored a NON-fiction book about the case titled The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice In A Small Town, which has been made into a NetFlix documentary/mini-series.
The Guardians is proof that John Grisham has not lost his writing edge!
A lawyer working late one night is shot and killed at his desk. A young black man named Quincy Miller - a one time client client of that lawyer, is charged, convicted, and sentenced to die for the crime. Though no one believed him he proclaimed his innocence for the next twenty-two years, until a letter he sent to a small non-profit innocence project called Guardian Ministries pays off and they take his case. His new lawyer, Cullen Post - who is also an Episcopalian minister, works on a shoe-string budget, tirelessly digging into the twenty-two year old case to try and exonerate his client. All this time later though, there are still people with an interest in the case. They want Quincy's verdict to stand, and they would have no problem seeing another lawyer dead to keep it that way.
There is no arguing that Grisham knows how to write a legal thriller. Not only has he written Quality legal thrillers that saw the top of the book charts (some of his better known early works made into block-buster movies as well), he has also produced an impressive quantity of books (The Guardians being his 40th according to his website). Often when an author becomes prolific in their writing, the quality suffers somewhat. In the case of this book, I can see no evidence of that. I still got pulled into the stories of Quincy and Cullen right away and every time I had to put it down I was always eager to get back to the story and find out what happened next.
The characters in this story were particularly engaging.
The trope of a potentially innocent person rotting in jail for a crime they did not commit is not new, but the fact that Quincy had spent so much time on death row and was so close to being actually executed made it more intense. The sense of injustice the reader develops thinking about twenty-two years combined with the sense of desperation as Quincy has come so close to meeting his execution makes for a certain intensity.
As characters, people often see lawyers as rich, entitled, or elitist, but Grisham has a way of making his lawyers likable and relatable to all his readers. In The Gaurdians, the character of Cullen is no exception. He is not rich or entitled, and far from having an elitist attitude. Champion of the "under-dog" he lives more modestly than most people, and works for the benefit of lower-income, wrongly accused people persecuted and long forgotten by "the system".
Narration was performed by Michael Beck and was flawless. Portrayal of emotion was in keeping with the story, and it was easy to follow character changes. Tone and cadence where pleasant yet lively when the story called for it.
In the author's notes, Grisham tells us that this story, while fictional was inspired by a true case of wrongful conviction. In fact, Grisham has authored a NON-fiction book about the case titled The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice In A Small Town, which has been made into a NetFlix documentary/mini-series.
The Guardians is proof that John Grisham has not lost his writing edge!
Happy Reading,
Christine
