THE TESTAMENT (29 september 2004)
One ingredient that can make a book more interesting to the reader is the punishment of those that the reader despises.
For instance, if a cruel man robs or beats up someone, it is gratifying to read that this brute is caught and dealt justice.
John Grisham's novel The Testament contains this ingredient. After all, most of us will despise pampered children of a billionaire, who feel nothing for their father than greed after his money.
In the blurb at the back of the book we read:
Troy Phelan is a self-made billionaire, one of the richest men in the United States. He is also an eccentric, reclusive, confined to a wheelchair, and determined to cut his children out of his will.
Nate O'Riley is a high-octane Washington litigator who's lived too hard, too fast, for too long.
Rachel Lane is a young woman who chose to give her life to God, who walked away from the modern world with all its strivings and trappings and encumbrances, and went to live in the deepest jungles of Brazil.
Nate's job is to find Rachel and tell her of Phelan's legacy. In a story that mixes legal suspense with a remarkable adventure their lives will be forever altered.
* * *
As we are accustomed of Grisham, the book is a page-turner from beginning to end.
One point that struck me is the ease with which you can find an expert-witness to corroborate a false point-of-view before a judge or jury -- which is small wonder as long as such "witnesses" are well-paid and cannot be prosecuted for perjury.
The Testament is a book I can highly recommend.
And I wasn't paid to write this testimony ...
