While this tale about a wrongly-accused murderer in a small town may seem like a typical John Grisham crime thriller, it differs in one crucial aspect: it is a work of nonfiction.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Boston Globe Chuck Leddy
A legal thriller every bit as suspenseful and fast-paced as his best - selling fiction.
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Grisham has written both an American tragedy and his strongest legal thriller yet, all the more gripping because it happens to be true.
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Raymond Seitz
Grisham lets this gripping story tell itself. Without directly attacking capital punishment, he demonstrates the gross fallibilities of the system, exposing here not merely a 'miscarriage of justice' but its utter collapse.
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Favorable
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Chicago Sun-Times Steve Weinberg
It is not a feel-good book despite the exonerations of Williamson and Fritz. It is an important book, however. Maybe with Grisham shouting out the causes and frequency of wrongful convictions, reform will occur in every jurisdiction, rather than only a few.
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Favorable
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Sydney Morning Herald Bruce Elder
He doesn't degenerate into cliches and he has a natural sense of dramatic structure that ensures the book has a compelling forward momentum.
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Favorable
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The Onion A.V. Club Noel Murray
Grisham overdoes it a little. He states and re-states each malfeasance, and writes in exhausting detail about Williamson's untreated mental illness. But when Grisham gets into what happened to Williamson and company during their prison stay, The Innocent Man finds its purpose.
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Favorable
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Washington Post Jonathan Yardley
His prose here isn't as good as it is in his novels -- he too often misuses "like" for "as," and the exclamation points he inserts as ironic asides are clumsy -- but his reasoning is sound and his passion is contagious.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
Compared with other works in its genre, The Innocent Man is less spectacular than sturdy. It is a reminder not only of how propulsively Mr. Grisham’s fiction is constructed but of how difficult it is to make messy reality behave in clear, streamlined fashion.
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Mixed
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Chicago Tribune Steve Mills
Grisham writes the story with such restraint that, at times, he fails to arouse sufficient anger at the miscarriage Williamson and Fritz suffered.
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Unfavorable
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Los Angeles Times Michael Harris
But isn't there more to it than that? From a nonfiction book, we expect a diagnosis as well as a story....Grisham skimps on historical context.
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Unfavorable
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Wall Street Journal Joshua Marquis
Thanks to his abundant storytelling skills, the author delivers an account that is as vivid as the Grisham fictional fare sold at airport kiosks -- but it is also, alas, just as oversimplified as his novels, and it distorts the justice system in the same way.
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Unfavorable
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The New York Times Book Review Edward Lewine
In The Innocent Man, however, he has shackled himself to facts that are less intriguing than he imagines, and he fails to use his creative gifts to help matters along.
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