As a long-time Grisham fan, the moment I got my hands on this book I bookmarked the one I'd almost finished reading, set aside the one lined up to be read next and got down to business. My only disappointment? That real-life business (like eating and sleeping) prevented me from polishing it off in one sitting; it was engrossing from the first page to the last.The story outlines the efforts of nonprofit Guardian Ministries, a small, close-knit group of like-minded individuals whose mission is to move legal mountains to free wrongly convicted prison inmates. Narrated by firm investigator, attorney and Episcopal priest Cullen Post, the book primarily details the investigative and legal progress as related to two of the firm's six clients - both of whom have been serving time for years for crimes they did not commit. The primary focus is on Quincy Miller, a black man who was sent to prison for life for murdering a young lawyer in a small north Florida town.
Fast-forward 22 years, when Cullen meets with the man and, after reviewing the scant evidence that suggests Quincy was framed, decides to take on the case. Getting to the truth, though, requires hundreds of interviews, exhausting research and travel wherever the evidence leads - not easily accomplished by a firm that operates on a shoestring budget. But the more they investigate, the more convinced of Quincy's innocence they become and the more determined Cullen is to prove it (and maybe, although it's not the prime directive, unearth the real killer in the process).
Time-consuming? Obviously. Dangerous? Not so much, except when it is; not everyone is eager to set the record straight. Some, in fact, will go to any lengths to keep long-buried secrets as dead as the lawyer they murdered all those years ago - and now they've got Cullen in their sights. Will he get out alive? And if he does, will he get his client out of jail? Read it and find out - you'll be glad you did.
The Guardians by John Grisham (Doubleday, October 2019); 371 pp.
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