Sparring Partners: The Number One Sunday Times bestseller – The new collection of gripping legal stories
£4.70
***THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER***
‘Three sparkling Grisham stories for the price of one . . . Appealing entertainment’ IRISH INDEPENDENT
‘These three novellas in a single volume show Grisham at his masterful best, exquisite evocations of the law though far from complimentary about lawyers . . . A minor masterpiece’ DAILY MAIL
Three thrilling stories of the law from the master of the legal thriller.
Homecoming takes us back to Ford County, the fictional setting of many of John Grisham’s unforgettable stories. Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. He’s called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer in Clanton who three years earlier became a local legend when he stole some money from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and left his family in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again. Until now. Now Mack is back and he’s leaning on his old pals, Jake and Harry Rex, to help him return. His homecoming does not go as planned.
In Strawberry Moon, we meet Cody Wallace, a young death row inmate only three hours away from execution. His lawyers can’t save him, the courts slam the door, and the Governor says no to a last minute request for clemency. As the clock ticks down, Cody has only one final request.
The Sparring Partners are the Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two successful young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison. Kirk and Rusty loathe one another, and speak to each other only when necessary. As the firm disintegrates, the fiasco falls into the lap of Diantha Bradshaw, the only person the partners trust. Can she save the Malloys, or does she take a stand for the first time and try to save herself?
350+ million copies, 45 languages, 10 blockbuster films:
NO ONE WRITES DRAMA LIKE JOHN GRISHAM
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Additional information
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (31 May 2022) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 2644 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 321 pages |
| Page numbers source ISBN | 0385549326 |
by Bugsey
Great read as always but I wasn’t expecting there completely unrelated tales. Threw me for a while. Still extremely worthwhile read.
by Mr Neil Casson
Bought this book not knowing it was a compilation of 3 unrelated short stories. The first ended abruptly just as you were getting into it, the second was not that riveting and the third was OK. Alright as a ‘stocking filler’ but nowhere as good as a Grisham novel!
by Kerry Smith
Left wanting more from the first tale.
by John
Homecoming: Following on from Fish Files (taken for the Ford County collection), Jake Brigance makes an appearance, this time helping his old friend, Mack Stafford, who disappeared a few years previously. This is an enjoyable story, and a welcome return for Mack.
Strawberry Moon: Cody Wallace has three hours to live – not yet thirty he has been on death row for half his life. Before he dies, he wants one thing. Interesting take on the evils of capital punishment.
Sparring Partners: Kirk and Rusty Malloy inherited the law firm Malloy & Malloy when the founder, their father, went to prison for killing their mother. They hate each other, but the partnership agreement forces them to preside over the failing firm ‘together’. Diantha Bradshaw is the de facto managing partner of the firm, and both brothers trust her. As the firms troubles get worse, with Bradshaw save the firm, or herself. Despite being a short story, it takes a little while to get going. The three Malloy’s are far from sympathetic, but get going it does.
Overall three good additions to the Grisham catalogue and worth a look.
by Hilary Grierson
Did not realise this was a book of short storeis, I much prefer full length novels, didn’t see it advertised as a three in one!
by Gasman
I think if this was the first Grisham book I read it might have been the last, which would have meant missing out on a lot of good reads.
by Northern Ireland
Pace and gripping descriptions of actions and reactions of characters. Had no idea how thing how each case would end
by Mandrek Larl
Do not be confused as others have been, “Sparring Partners” is not a full-length story it’s a collection of three shortish stories from John Grisham and that’s where its problems start and finish. Because that’s just what they are, simple short and seemingly incomplete lacklustre stories, and don’t expect a big twist that draws them all together because there’s nothing to connect them.
The first of the stories, “Homecoming” is about a small-town lawyer who disappeared under a cloud and wants to come home, hence the title. But wait haven’t we read something similar before in “The Partner” [5 stars], only that time it was more complex and way more interesting and it had a satisfactory ending with a great, if obvious, twist as the eponymous partner gradually turned from villain to righter-of-wrongs. Sadly however in “Homecoming” the partner only goes from unconfirmed villain to confirmed villain before the story peters out. (3 stars at a push)
The second “Strawberry Moon” is about [another] death row inmate, this time one with a few hours left to live. Again haven’t we read something similar before in “The Confession”? But in this case nothing much actually happens in the inmate’s final hours, although as the tale unfolds and the events leading up to the inmate’s arrest, conviction and execution become clear a Grisham makes a strong case for abolishing the barbaric death penalty emerges and, if nothing else here, for that alone Mr Grisham should be praised. (2 stars plus a bonus 2 stars for presenting an argument against the death penalty)
And finally the eponymous “Sparring Partners” are two lawyer brothers who have inherited a law firm but won’t speak to each other. The brothers are diametrically opposed in just about every way that Grisham can imagine, with the exception of their attitude to their father, the law firm’s disgraced disbarred former senior partner now languishing in gaol. At this point I’m beginning to lose the will to write this review because this is a little story that has been padded out to 40% or thereabouts of this book, and the inevitable outcome is all too obvious as the story unfolds but there’s a lot of fluff to get through before you get there. (2 stars)
And that’s it, it’s all in a word: disappointing.