Book Reviews

Book Review: A Time for Mercy by John Grisham

In ‘A Time for Mercy’, we meet up again with Jake Brigance the brilliant young defence lawyer, working in Clanton, Mississippi who we first read about in Grisham’s earlier novel “A Time to Kill” (if you haven’t read that one, get hold of a copy and read it!). This time, much against his will and better judgement, Jake’s been hijacked by Judge Omar Noose to defend 16-year-old Drew Gamble who’s shot and killed his mother’s boyfriend Stuart Kofer. To make matters worse, Kofer is a Deputy to Sheriff Ozzie Walls and an esteemed member of Clanton’s law enforcement team. What no-one seemed to know, and certainly didn’t talk about, was that Kofer, when off duty, was also a hardened drinker and an ugly violent drunk. Drew’s mother, Josie had had a chaotic life of crime, drugs, periods in prison and homelessness and had ended up living with Kofer, thinking that it would offer some security for her and her two children – she also had a 14-year-old daughter, Kiera. As it turned out that wasn’t a happy choice as, before long, she and her children were frequently on the receiving end of his drunken rages and violence.
The story starts late on a Saturday night/early Sunday morning when Kofer comes home extremely drunk and angry. Josie tries to calm him to protect her children but fails and is severely beaten. Drew and his sister have locked themselves into Kiera’s bedroom, terrified and hoping to avoid his anger, but can hear their mother being both verbally and physically abused. Finally, all goes quiet, but Kofer then can be heard coming up the stairs and calling to Kiera. Fortunately, their locking and jamming of the bedroom door holds and after a while he goes away. After waiting for a while, the children open the door and, making sure that there was no sign of Kofer, creep downstairs in search of their mother. They find her lying on the kitchen floor, blood all around her and, in their fear, when they can’t wake her, conclude that she’s dead. They call 911 and report that their mother’s been killed and then, while Kiera holds her mother’s head, crying over her and pleading with her to wake up, Drew goes to check on Kofer and finds him fully dressed, flat out on his bed and in a deep sleep. At this point, Drew, with a deep hatred of Kofer and in the certainty that Kofer would want to kill all of them when he woke up, goes and picks up Kofer’s service revolver holds it against Kofer’s head and pulls the trigger and returns to the kitchen. Asked by Kiera “what did you do” he replies, “I shot him”. When the Sheriff Ozzie Walls and his team arrived, just ahead of the ambulance, Drew says nothing but Kiera said, “Drew shot him”.
It turns out that Josie is not dead but is very badly injured and is rushed off to hospital. Drew and Kiera are taken to prison; Drew to await trial and Kiera for her own protection while some safe place can be found for her. Eventually, as she has no other family or connections anywhere, she’s taken in by Charles McGarry, the Pastor of a small local church, and his wife Meg who will care for her for as long as is necessary.
So, Jake is stuck with a case he doesn’t want, which is going to make him very little money and quite possibly going to cost him money which he doesn’t really have. As he knows very well, it will also alienate him from many in the Clanton community who can’t understand him defending a ‘cop killer’, especially when the cop concerned was an esteemed part of their community. Jake has been there before, of course, being widely hated when he defended black Carl Lee Hailey who’d killed a couple of white youths who’d raped and killed his daughter – (read ‘A Time to Kill’) but has no way of getting out of it. At the same time, he and his less reputable associate, Harry Rex, have a much bigger, case they’re working on. The ‘Smallwood case’, concerns a family who’d been killed when their car, driven by Mr Smallwood, had collided with a freight train on a crossing. Jake’s case hung on the belief that the crossing was in a bad state of repair and its warning lights weren’t working. The defendant’s claim was that the lights were working, that the wagons of the train carried reflective stripes which drivers should have seen, and that Mr Smallwood had been drinking and that the alcohol was the reason why he’d failed to see the train. Jake and Harry Rex believed that they had a strong case and that the lawyers for the railroad company would settle for a considerable sum which would give them both a significant payment. All this is jeopardised when an isolated individual is noticed in CCTV footage of the crash and its aftermath. What seems like gold to Jake, turns to ashes when he learns that the individual’s evidence will favour the railroad company.
So, that’s the story so far. If you want to know how it turns out, you’ll have to read the book…

Phil L

Book Review: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

This story revolves around a forensic psychotherapist, Theo Faber, and his attempt to uncover the truth about Alicia Berenson, a patient in the ward where Theo works who has not spoken a word since she murdered her husband. In this story, Alex Michaelides takes the reader on a thrilling journey with the protagonist to comprehend one thing: the fascinating mind of Alicia Berenson and discover the reasoning that led her to commit her violent crime which trapped her in a world of silence and solitude. Michaelides possesses the ability to keep the reader hooked and interested as revelations grow ever-nearer with the use of perspective changes from the intelligent and seemingly innocent protagonist, Theo, to the antagonistic and potentially deadly Alicia, providing greater depth and insight into the contrasting characters as their lives seemingly begin to intertwine.
My favourite character in the book was Alicia Berenson. Despite her notoriety mainly being credited to the brutal murder of her husband, I like how Michaelides can portray her as the intelligent and talented woman she once was before she begins to transition into the strategic killer, she is made out to be. Although Alicia should and is culpable for her crimes throughout the book, I admired how Michaelides was able to persuade the reader into sympathising with her during the book’s progression which reveals other seemingly virtuous and innocuous characters to also be partially liable for Alicia’s actions.

Amy (Work Experience Student)

Book Review: You Are Awesome by Matthew Syed

This book is about little kids who don’t feel they are good enough and they don’t believe in their dreams. They think that they are useless, they are shy and not confident of what they do and say. They think that they don’t do fun stuff and stay home or when they think tit is that they may not be smart but ugly, not good body. So how this book helps it has different chapters which give a story of each person that felt like that but shows how they got better. After that it gives you some steps to do that are fun for children. They see it as a fun game or challenge on themselves. This book can change peoples opinion about what they think and make themselves do because everything is possible – you can do it and you can call yourselves awesome and know that you are good and you can do anything.

So, I like this book because it can change what people think about themselves and can change their life. One thing that the book talks about is to not give up – you did your first steps so keep going like this because everyone can do it. My favourite chapter was about Matthew: he was a child like everyone he always liked table tennis but always thought that he wasn’t good enough to be a champion he thought he was bad at it, but guess what? He was really good at it and now is a champion at table tennis which changed his life.

Gabriela (Work Experience Student)

All of these books and many more are available to borrow now at Blackfen Community Library. Come along, sit and have a read at our community hub and enjoy a fresh coffee from Rooted Coffee House, our in house coffee shop.

To enquire about the availability of these books you can login via your membership login or pop into the library and ask our team.