This book was not what I was expecting. I knew there was a murder and a mystery about why, but this family's issues went far farther than I expected. I was very uncomfortable with the detail of Pete's time in the Philippines as a P.O.W. and as a guerrilla fighter. I was not familiar with this part of WWII, but I am well versed in military trials. While I know this information was important to the main plot, I think there was too much time spent on this part. I never saw the true reason as it turned out, but it did make sense. Grisham did a good job of describing Mississip in the 1940's. It is uncomfortable to view this part of our history, but it also plays such a big part in the story, it is hard to imagine this story any place else. He knows his legal ground and uses it almost like another character. I am glad I was listening and not reading, since it is a long story with a lot of information. Then again, it would have been easier to skip over the war issues in a book.

Pete Banning was Clanton, Mississippi's favorite son--a decorated World War II hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed his pastor and friend, the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder weren't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it--to the sheriff, to his lawyers, to the judge, to the jury, and to his family--was: "I have nothing to say." He was not afraid of death and was willing to take his motive to the grave. In a major novel unlike anything he has written before, John Grisham takes us on an incredible journey, from the Jim Crow South to the jungles of the Philippines during World War II; from an insane asylum filled with secrets to the Clanton courtroom where Pete's defense attorney tries desperately to save him.
Reminiscent of the finest tradition of Southern Gothic storytelling, The Reckoning would not be complete without Grisham's signature layers of legal suspense, and he delivers on every page.
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