The New York Times Book Review - Charlie Rubin
…Grisham's 26th adult novel and one of his finest…Sycamore Row reminds us that the best legal fiction is written by lawyers…but this novel is unavoidably, and thankfully, about far more than just probating a will. Law is indistinguishable from the history of race in the South…I believe [Sycamore Row and A Time to Kill] will now be read back to back—and, standing together, at last dispel the long shadow of Harper Lee…
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
Mr. Grisham's gift for manipulating and explicating legal battles makes this multifaceted one satisfyingly cagey…Mr. Grisham knows what lawyers have been taught to do. More important, he also knows how they actually behave…As Sycamore Row finally reaches its trial phase, the author hits his full stride. He knows the courtroom inside out, and he helpfully describes each little step of these proceedings. Even if sharp-eyed readers already know how the book's surprises may arise…they will still miss the final whammy that Mr. Grisham has in store.
Publishers Weekly - Audio
01/27/2014
Narrator Beck turns in a fine performance in this audio version of Grisham’s outstanding sequel to the classic courtroom drama A Time to Kill. It’s 1988 and Clayton, Miss–based lawyer Jake Brigance receives a handwritten will from the recently deceased Seth Hubbard that leaves the majority of his estate—roughly $20 million—to his African-American maid, thus disinheriting his own children. Along with the will is a letter from Hubbard instructing Brigance to defend his last wishes at all costs. With millions on the line, the Hubbard family aggressively contests the old man’s will, throwing Brigance into a trial full of twists and turns. Beck’s gentle accented reading skillfully captures the old-world, Southern tone of Grisham’s novel. Beck also keeps the story moving at a good pace and infuses each character with a distinctive regional voice. A Doubleday hardcover. (Oct.)
Publishers Weekly
★ 10/28/2013
Leave it to Grisham to make a battle about wills nail-bitingly suspenseful in his second novel featuring lawyer Jake Brigance, the hero of Grisham’s debut, A Time to Kill. It’s 1988, and Seth Hubbard, an elderly man dying of cancer, hangs himself after leaving detailed instructions for his funeral—and a handwritten will, penned the day before, that disinherits his children and gives 90% of his estate to his African-American caretaker, Lettie Lang. Since that unwitnessed document contradicts an earlier one, and Hubbard’s assets are north of $20 million, Brigance, who was asked by Hubbard in a note to represent his interests, has a battle on his hands when the disinherited lawyer up. The storyline takes several dramatic turns, even as why Hubbard was so generous to Lang, whom he was not close to, remains a mystery. All the author’s strengths are in evidence—his capturing the rhythms of small-town life in Clanton, Miss., his skill at making legal minutiae comprehensible, and his gift at getting readers to care about his characters. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Praise for the novels of John Grisham
"John Grisham is about as good a storyteller as we've got in the United States these days." —The New York Times Book Review
"John Grisham is exceptionally good at what he does—indeed, right now in this country, nobody does it better." —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
"Grisham is a marvelous storyteller who works readers the way a good trial lawyer works a jury." —Philadelphia Inquirer
"John Grisham owns the legal thriller." —The Denver Post
"John Grisham is not just popular, he is one of the most popular novelists of our time. He is a craftsman and he writes good stories, engaging characters, and clever plots." —Seattle Times
"A legal literary legend." —USA Today
Library Journal
Remember A Time To Kill's Jake Brigance? He's back, trying to make sure that justice is served in Ford County, MS, even as one small town's trial of the century seems set to pull folks apart. Just starting to buzz—one wishes that there were more plot details—but the return of Jack Brigance will set readers on fire.
NOVEMBER 2013 - AudioFile
Michael Beck's masterful narration of John Grisham's engaging novel about the validity of a handwritten will offers more than a courtroom battle. Beck expertly guides the story through myriad surprises and suspense-laden twists while affecting the drawls, twangs, and nuances of the characters’ Mississippi dialects. A disgruntled family starts a legal battle against a relative's estate. Jake Brigance, the young defense attorney from A TIME TO KILL, defends the will. A bevy of other characters from the earlier novel become involved as complex entanglements ensue. Beck nails the characters whether they’re confident, sympathetic, unsure, cocky, or even drunk. Overall, SYCAMORE ROW is exactly the compelling work one would expect from Grisham, and it’s even better with the narration of Michael Beck. M.N.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2014 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2013-11-03
A long-after sequel, of a sort, to A Time to Kill (1989), in which dogged attorney Jake Brigance fights for justice in a Mississippi town where justice is not always easy to come by. That's especially true when the uncomfortable question of race comes up, and here, it's a doozy. When local curmudgeon and secret millionaire Seth Hubbard puts an end to a lingering death, he leaves a holographic will placing the bulk of his fortune in the hands of the black woman who's been taking care of him, cutting his children and ex-wives out of the deal. That will also alludes to having seen "something no human should ever see"--a promising prompt, that is to say, for the tangled tale that follows. When Jake brings the housekeeper, Lettie Lang, news of the extent of her newfound wealth, her world begins to unravel as her husband brings in a battery of attorneys to join the small army of lawyers already fighting over Hubbard's will. Grisham, as always, is spot-on when it comes to matters of the bar, and the reader will learn a thing or two from him--for instance, that Mondays are the busiest days for divorce lawyers, "as marriages cracked over the weekends and spouses already at war ramped up their attacks." This being 1988, there's casual sexism aplenty in Grisham's tale; it being the flatland Deep South, there are heaping helpings of racial tension, and it's on that fact that the story turns. Grisham, as ever, delivers a vivid, wisecracking and tautly constructed legal procedural from which the reader might draw at least this lesson: You never want to wind up in front of a judge, even one as wise as the earwig-welcoming Reuben V. Atlee, and if you do, you want to have Jake Brigance on your side. Trademark Grisham, with carefully situated echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird. A top-notch thriller.
