Once we get used to Grisham's style of writing courtroom sagas, it is quite difficult to actually like other kind of books he writes! So this review is obviously prejudiced!!
But still, there were other books like 'The Innocent Man', and 'Skipping Christmas', that were real good! Especially the latter, which is totally away from his usual gripping courtroom dramas, but still managed to warm hearts.
Right on the blurb, Ford County Stories says that it is a book which puts together plots that Grisham never got to exploring deeper - and for good reason! The collection of stories actually is not much, except for the fact that the reader really appreciates Grisham's sense of judgement in not making these into regular novel sized books.
Now, that does not mean none of these stories are good. There are a couple which really have the potential, and could have made into decent bestsellers - like the story titled 'Quiet Haven' - the story of a truly delightful rascal, who has an entirely different style of making money. That one seriously could have become a wonderful addition to Grisham's list. Then there is the one titled 'Casino' that immediately reminds us of someone like a Jeffrey Archer. That one also is quite delightful. But most of the other stories are just mediocre. What probably has happened here is that the publishers wanted to bring something from the Grisham stable onto the shelves and over the last few years, Grisham has moved away from writing brilliant courtroom sagas. To get the readers back into the Southern Mississippi mould - and Ford County in particular, they just put together a few stories and since it has the name of the master on them, they'll anyway hit the bestseller list.
But then, I've never really enjoyed reading short stories - even books like Twelve Red Herrings; and that is probably another prejudice with which I started reading this one. You can get this from your local library if you'd like to read it!
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