Book Review: Sycamore Row by John Grisham

Sycamore RowOn a Sunday morning after church, Seth Hubbard, a wealthy man dying of cancer, hangs himself from a sycamore tree. Just before his final act, he hand-writes a new will, one that replaces his previously filed will that named his adult children his primary beneficiaries..

On Monday, when Clanton, Mississippi attorney Jake Brigance receives a letter from Seth Hubbard and the hand-written will, he’s astonished. The will reads that Seth Hubbard has left 90 percent of his vast holdings to his black maid, Lettie. The attorney doesn’t know Mr. Hubbard nor Lettie, but he feels obligated to handle this case judiciously.

The estate is estimated to be $24 million, mostly in cash assets. When Hubbard’s daughter and her husband and Hubbard’s divorced son learn of their father’s death, they come running, unlike their behavior when their father was alive. Of course, they’re already mentally spending their inheritance.

When the facts of the hand-written will become known, the chaos begins. Attorneys gather to contest the more recent will, salivating at the money to be earned in defense of the family.

The case goes to trial and surprising, even shocking, events are revealed. Author John Grisham, a southerner, doesn’t soft-peddle race relations in the late 1980s, when this story takes place.

Readers of Grisham’s first legal thriller, A Time to Kill, will recognize the attorney Jake Briggance and some of the characters from his world. I especially enjoyed the banter between the lawyers.

A former attorney, John Grisham practiced Mississippi law before he turned to writing. His popularity is well deserved. In reading his books, you learn about the law, but his stories aren’t steeped in legalese. Coming from the Northwest, I cringed at some of the racial insinuations. I realize they are true in the south, or were in the 1980’s, and especially further back when some of the story takes place.

Sycamore Row is a fast-paced and engrossing legal thriller, one I heartily recommend.

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