The Chamber: A Novel

One of the great story tellers of all time writes a masterpiece. Tight characters & a thought provoking narative keep you spellbound.

Book was in good condition and he loves it!

I was with Adam every minute. Grisham knows deeply every character. Those who wanted Sam to die. Those who didn’t want him to die. And all the myriad of reasons had by all persons on both sides of the question, in all their complexities and simplicities. A daunting read. In the end, I couldn’t put it down.

I've now read four of Grisham's novels and I think this one is probably my least favorite. Grisham did a good job of taking us inside Death Row and into the many different ways in which the defendant's lawyer uses every possible option to save their client. Grisham's opinion of the death penalty is obvious in the book. The deep and dark look into the Cayhall family history of being members of KKK gives the reader a good indication as to just how brutal African Americans were treated. The topics were really good, but the book was way too long. I think Grisham could have condensed this by 100 pages easily. It took a longer for me to read this book than the other three because there seemed to be a lot of pages that weren't necessary and weren't interesting to the overall theme of the book. Not to give too much away about the book, but I find it really hard to believe that no one would vet all of the calls that were made to protest the execution of Sam. None of the Governor's staff would question the validity of the calls when other data showed that the state was in favor of the death penalty? The sudden influx of hundreds of calls should have raised some sort of red flags.

The guts of this book were very good and kept my attention. The problem was all the long written details that were not only boring but unnecessary. Don't know if the intent was to make a longer book or if the author thought some of it was necessary. This reader certainly didn't find it necessary to tell the very interesting tale.

Very sad story about a man on death row and his lawyer grandson defending him through the process of endless appeals needed to die in a gas chamber.Not up to Grisham standards in many ways and never any happy fun moments that you are use to in a Grisham book. The Topic of capital punishment over takes all side story development to make for a depressing read.

The story was good and characters well defined but there were too many rabbit trails that had potential then led nowhere. It was more like the author expressed his views on the death penalty and gave Christian witness on salvation. Adam Hall only just found out that Sam Cayhall is his grandfather who murdered an black man but never charged; currently he is on death row charged with bombing the offices of a Jewish business man. The bomb went off later than expected killing the.2 little children and wounding the Jewish man. Adam is fresh out of law school and recently hired at a prestigious Chicago law firm; he is sent to represent Sam. All the appeals are exhausted but Adam is confident he can find a legal way to get his grandfather a new trial or at least life. The governor as well as an FBI agent feel Sam was just a lookout not the bomber but Sam insists he acted alone. The story has more of the family drama and description of how the gas chamber works than actually how Adam can work any new legal arguments. The bomber is always in the background but just waiting for the execution. The governor won't do anything since Sam won't give up his partner. Like I said lots of dead end rabbit trails.diamondgirl

Grisham isn't a great writer. He's a good writer in his genre, though, so I read a lot of his books. This is one of the better ones, in my opinion, because it manages to show the humanity of the deeply flawed main characters. There are no sob stories, no excuses for their criminal and unethical behavior, but they're still human beings, so they invite us to connect with our own flaws. At the same time, it shines a light on the American prison system, not by preaching, but by showing, in minute detail, what a maximum security prison looks, sounds, feels, and smells like. And it exposes the arbitrary and capricious (and often willfully cruel) process of state-sanctioned homicide.

I've read a few of Mr Grishams books and they always make good reading and you do get immersed. But this one is on another level. It's illuminating in the way it educates you how the death penalty works but is so much more. At the centre of the plot is an aged Death Row inmate convicted of bombing and killing. His lawyer is his grandson, a rookie who is desperately going through the procedures to attempt a stay of execution in the last four weeks before the execution date. One of the original prosecutors is now the Governor (who can reprieve).At the same time, this story is dark and depressing, yet interspersed with hope and goodness. It's a criticism of the death penalty and the particular way it's undertaken here (by gassing). It's also a study of the condemned man and how, despite having committed some terrible crimes, he is human, has good qualities and with whom the reader can (mostly) sympathise.But whatever else it is, it's a damned good book that is totally worth reading.

During a recent house move, management took the dastardly opportunity to dispose of a large number of paperback books - including my precious John Grisham collection....So, I have started replenishing my stock and storing them on my Kindle Oasis. The good news is that I am revisiting some excellent books - and "The Chamber" is a case in point.It's a tale of a young lawyer desperately trying to save his grandfather who is on death row with his execution imminent.The realities of the death penalty in the USA are certainly brought home - plenty of food for thought....

Spoilers ahead.I have been an avid Grisham fan for decades and this is the first novel I struggled to get through. It started well, but seemed to slow down and become tedious in the middle. I found myself racing to get through it, hoping the pace would pick up, but it didn’t really until the last few chapters. Those chapters, however, really made up for it.The narration of the final hours of Sam and Adam as his execution loomed were superbly written. I am not one to cry at fiction, but my goodness it brought me to tears. You could picture the scene and vividly sense the emotions playing out. The final chapter after the event was equally compelling, a fitting ending to a story of pain, suffering and the legacy left for the family to live with.

The arguments concerning the death penalty are rehearsed in great detail. Clearly John Grisham has studied the matter in depth, and his views are made clear. Any system where the retribution is administered so long after the event, must be challenged, particularly where there are so many held waiting for it to be put into effect, and who may well escape. The system is flawed, and something ought to be done to change it.However, the story read well, and the characters were, as ever, believable. I enjoyed it, although I am not sure I would have picked it up if I had known what it was about in advance! Well done.

I am a huge Grisham fan. His books never disappoint - until this one. Clearly a well researched topic and definitely gives the reader an insight into the death penalty from the prisoner's perspective. I laboured through the book and with 50 pages to go I thought this is going to have an explosive ending. Sadly it just fizzled out. Characters loomed in the background and I was expecting them to make a dramatic appearance but that never happened either. It was almost as if Grisham himself was bored with the book and finished it without a satisfactory ending. He has written many brilliant books. My recommendation is to spend your money on one of those instead!