The Guardians

 

The Guardians – by John Grisham

As I’ve stated in countless reviews of Grisham’s work, no matter how good an author is, when he churns out a new book every six months or so (probably due to publisher demands), he is likely to deliver subpar material at times.  Fortunately, this isn’t the case here.  This was one of the most engaging novels by John Grisham that I have read in some time.  It’s by no means a revolutionary story.  John Grisham tends to write about many of the same themes over his 35 books or so; so there is no ‘a-ha’ factor here.  If you are fan and you had you not known this was a John Grisham novel when you picked it up, you would immediately know it was a novel by John Grisham within the first few pages.

This is one of Grisham’s novels about the poor, the downtrodden, and the unfortunate. Since this is a ‘legal’ story, these individuals are always arrested and incarcerated even though they’re completely innocent.  They’re always poor and mostly minorities.  The ones that convict said individuals are, of course, all white, rich, and powerful.  And if you try to go against such powerful personalities, may God help you.

Fortunately for Cullen Post, God really is “on his side”. In addition to being a lawyer for the poor and unfortunate, he’s also an Episcopal minister.  He can get a lot done and get into a lot of doors by simply putting his priestly collar on over his neck.  He works with a group of attorneys called “The Guardians”.  Their mission is to review cases where individuals have been (the Guardians believe) unfairly convicted for serious offenses. Many are on death row.  Since it seems about 1 out of every 5 of John Grisham’s books consist of him loudly preaching against the death penalty, it’s not at all surprising to find such sentiments here.  And, of course, this group of Guardians (there are only four, I think) operate on a shoestring budget and depend on donations for most of their funding.  Yep, we’ve read about all of this many times before.

There are actually a few cases within these pages that Post takes on.  The most visible is a murder conviction of a black (of course) man named Quincy Miller that happened over 20 years ago.  I won’t go into the plot details, but Post’s journey is well thought out and told well by Grisham as he tries to right a major wrong. This story would make a good episode on one of those crime shows that everyone seems to like.  There are a lot of characters in and out of the pages, but Grisham sets up his narrative well enough to where we never feel lost nor confused.

So there is no originality here, but there is a very good story.  Most Grisham books (even many of the subpar ones) are told in such a style that it’s easy to digest 100 pages or so within one dedicated sitting.  I’m sure I will have forgotten the plot of this thing a year from now, as it blends in with so much of the author’s other works, but I enjoyed it and would recommend to others; regardless of whether or not you’re a fan.