Grisham is always an excellent story teller. In this one his order is present, past, and then the real present. As a reader who has never been to Ford County or the Phillipines, I feel like I know both intimately. Most compelling Grisham novel yet. You will not be disappointed.

I would not recommend this book. Very hard to get through. I was hoping for a better story. JG is slipping.

This is not a typical John Grisham story. It is very tragic and examines the cultural and psychological aspects of poor communication and perhaps the effects of PTSD in WW2 vets. There’s no happy ending here. The main character is built so that I felt empathy for him, however he brought so much destruction to so many people it is almost impossible to feel any real sympathy for him. The lesson here for me is that actions produce consequences that effect more people than you might imagine. Also communicating well is much more important than actions.

I give this book a five star rating for a number of reasons1 - It's not like so many other novels that pick up the theme of a Greek tragedy where problems just keep mounting then a God swoops in and saves the day. Only now the God is a computer geek.2 - It's a real story, not three short stories woven together so it takes up 300 to 400 pages.3 - You really feel as if you know the characters and care about them.4 - I had a cousin who was in the Bataan death March and wound up in Japan. He also never talked about the experience and this book she'd some light on what he went through.I totally enjoyed the book. John Grisham always keeps me guessing. Keep 'em coming.

I have always enjoyed John Grisham's novels. This one is a disappointment. First of all I did NOT like the ending at all. I know that's about me and not about the book but I still didn't like it. More than that I didn't like wasting my time thumbing through page after page after page of completely useless narrative. There is a vastly long section at the center of the book where he is writing about the mothers mental problems and the sons law school career that are a complete waste of time. It's obvious that the publishers are paying him by the page or by the word. The result is a huge amount of unnecessary text that doesn't really contribute to the story, that is very useful in putting me to sleep. This is not the first time this is happened. I have found it happening more and more frequently with other authors.