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Book Review of The Chamber

The Chamber
The Chamber
Author: John Grisham
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
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The Chamber is an epic-like excursion into many of the issues regarding the gas chamber as a method of execution. The main protagonist is an old man who participated in a terrorist bombing of a Jewish attorney in Mississippi during the height of KKK activity.

The other key character is his grandson, a fresh-faced attorney from a large Chicago-based law firm who only "discovered" his grandfather a few years earlier. He is his grandfather's last chance.

This novel is peppered with facts about the gas chamber and about the litigation of the death penalty in general. The characterization of a large number of characters is deep and it makes you sympathize with a character as hateful as Sam Cayhall.

This moves at a slower pace than many of his other novels, but this allows for greater character development, which I really enjoyed. I felt that I knew the characters as the novel was developing. I found this refreshing as many novels these days seem to skip the development of characters.