John Grisham's "The Chamber"

I am reading The Chamber, one of John Grisham's many legal dramas. So far, The Chamber is not the page turner that The Summons was, which I read last year along with The King of Torts. I truly enjoyed The Summons. It was a nice easy read, paced well, and I could relate to parts of the story.

By contrast, The Chamber is much heavier, graver in tone and theme. Grisham's pacing here drags a little much for my taste, too much detail and not enough action. I like stories that explain what a protagonist wants to do and what he or she thinks, assuming that what he or she thinks is interesting. Interesting observations about life provide great entertainment to readers

The Chamber places emphasis on facts instead of thoughts, and the facts are rather unpleasant. When I came across this novel for the first time, I thought the chamber referred to a judge's chamber. Not so. The chamber is actually a gas chamber used for capital punishment. We are dealing with a death penalty story.

The rather unpleasant facts of the story pertain to a Ku Klux Klan bombing way back in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. The Chamber tells the tale of one Sam Cayhall, a Mississippi Klansman who had a role in the bombing. The target was a Jewish lawyer's office. The lawyer lost his legs in the attack, and his two sons were killed. Ultimately, Sam Cayhall gets convicted for the bombing. A jury sentences him to death. Over time, Sam's grandson, Adam Hall, formerly a Cayhall himself, becomes a lawyer and maneuvers to represent his grandfather for one last appeal before the scheduled execution.

Much of Grisham's story focuses on the bombing. As the story plays out, Adam learns new facts about Sam's highly-interesting case. Other aspects dwell on Sam's stay on death row, gas chambers and capital punishment in general. The whole thing is well-conceived on Grisham's part. He paints a stark picture of the legal process involved in death penalty cases, the political wrangling, the plight and perspective of a condemned man and how all of this affects the condemned man's extended family. It is truly a good story. I just wish it was paced faster.

I cannot wait to finish The Chamber so I can take on something else from John Grisham.