As I've said, I enjoy popular fiction...at least, the popular fiction I enjoy. I messed up my eyes pretty badly when I was studying for my degree in church history, so I only actually read serious stuff. So, when I consume popular fiction, it's always as an audiobook.
Grisham was once my favorite author...years ago...but I've soured on his books since then.
After the first few excellent novels, he began to use his novels as an opportunity to preach. If I feel I need a sermon, I can always go to church. So, I moved on, checking every few years to read reviews of his latest.
Sycamore Row came out in 2013 and there was a time, about five years ago, that I almost checked it out of the library but found something that day that appealed more, and then never got back to it. But, now that I'm quarantined...
I've had the impression that this one was one of his better recent novels, and less preachy than most and, it's unique among his books.
All of his other novels, as far as I know, are stand alone stories. This one is a sequel of sorts to his first, A Time to Kill. It has, at least, the same main character as his first. Many characters from the first novel appear in this one.
Anyway, Grisham is a Christian. Part of his preachiness, I imagine, comes from a desire to write something that has more substance than a fluff novel.
There's a wonderful scene in this one where Grisham writes the gospel into the story. I, at least, didn't feel preached at.
It's in chapter 30. It's entirely peripheral to the story but it has a Christian couple practicing forgiveness of a horrid and unforgivable act and explaining that, in Luke 6, Jesus teaches forgiveness. It's powerful, and moving.
The story is just the slightest bit preachy and rather predictable. But, Grisham is a superb storyteller when he can figure out how to end the story. This story does have an ending.
This one is long for popular fiction. The audio book is 21 hours long and I started to lose focus at about hour 15, but he won me back.
If you're into this sort of thing, you might want to give Sycamore Row a try.
If you do, let me know what you think about chapter 30.
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