Atlantic County Library System

UnCovered review by Collette Jones, Manager, ACLS Egg Harbor City Branch

Sparring Partners is another in a long list of John Grisham classics. It’s an easy read on your summer vacation.

Fans and newcomers alike will not be disappointed by John Grisham’s first collection of novellas. In the title story, “Sparring Partners”, Bolton Malloy, disbarred from the firm he created, is in prison for killing his wife. That the main sentiment of the murder is that Bolton wasn’t careful enough in covering up the crime indicates how disagreeable the victim was, and from this partnership came Rusty and Kirk, two lawyer sons who detest each other. Because their father forced them to sign an agreement that would result in acute penalties were they to leave Malloy & Malloy, their bond is indissoluble and toxic. The only thing that could make their situation more poisonous would be for Bolton to rejoin the firm, and when their father comes up with a scheme to get out of prison, the boys devise a plan to keep him in place. Add a seemingly sympathetic office manager who turns out to be as thoroughly disagreeable and manipulative as the rest of the cast, and by the end of the tale you just want everyone to be destroyed. Both lawyers and non-lawyers will appreciate the layers found in the title story. Kirk and Rusty Malloy took over a thriving law firm run by their father, who is serving a prison term for murdering their mother. The antagonism between the brothers is destroying the firm, and as it crumbles before them, we wonder how they will survive.

“Homecoming,” the first of three stories that comprise the book, features one of the few characters who has appeared in multiple Grisham novels: Jake Brigance, a small-town practitioner with an office in Ford County, Mississippi. This time, Jake is asked to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, an attorney who found his life falling apart and elected to solve his dilemma by disappearing from town. This is a story of forgiveness, revenge, and friendship. Mack, living well in paradise, has buyer’s remorse and wants to reestablish a relationship with his two teenage daughters.

“Strawberry Moon” is the book’s most poignant novella. Cody Wallace is a young man on death row who is only three hours away from being executed.

Enjoy it, and admire the skill of a truly great writer while pondering where his next book will take us.