The Chamber - Softcover

Grisham, John

3.84

140,044 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440220602 ISBN 13: 9780440220602

Publisher: Dell, 1995

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In the corridors of Chicago's top law firm:

Twenty-six-year-old Adam Hall stands on the brink  of a brilliant legal career. Now he is risking it  all for a death-row killer and an impossible case.

Maximum Security Unit, Mississippi State  Prison:

Sam Cayhall is a former Klansman  and unrepentant racist now facing the death penalty  for a fatal bombing in 1967. He has run out of  chances -- except for one: the young, liberal Chicago  lawyer who just happens to be his grandson. While  the executioners prepare the gas chamber, while  the protesters gather and the TV  cameras wait, Adam has only days, hours, minutes  to save his client. For between the two men is a  chasm of shame, family lies, and secrets --  including the one secret that could save Sam Cayhall's  life...or cost Adam his.

"A dark and  thoughtful tale pulsing wit moral uncertainties...  Grisham is at his best."  --People.

"Compelling... Powerful...  The Chamber will make readers think  long and hard about the death penalty." --  USA Today.

"His best  yet." -- The Houston Post.

"Mesmerizing... with an authority and  originality... and with a grasp of literary  complexity that makes Scott Turow's novels pale by  comparison -- Grisham returns." -- San  Francisco Chronicle.

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Review:

"The decision to bomb the office of the radical Jew lawyer was reached with relative ease." So begins Grisham's legal leviathan The Chamber, a 676-page tome that scrutinizes the death penalty and all of its nuances--from racially motivated murder to the cruel and unusual effects of a malfunctioning gas chamber.

Adam Hall is a 26-year-old attorney, fresh out of law school and working at the best firm in Chicago. He might have been humming Timbuk 3's big hit, "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades," if it wasn't for his psychotic Southern grandfather, Sam Cayhall. Cayhall, a card-carrying member of the KKK, is on death row for killing two men. Knowing his uncle will surely die without his legal expertise, Hall comes to the rescue and puts his dazzling career at stake, while digging up a barnyard of skeletons from his family's past. Grisham fans expecting the typical action-packed plot should ready themselves for a slower pace, well-fleshed-out characters, and heavy doses of sentimentalism.

From the Back Cover:

"A dark and thoughtful tale pulsing wit moral uncertainties... Grisham is at his best." --People.

"Compelling... Powerful... The Chamber will make readers think long and hard about the death penalty." -- USA Today.

"His best yet." -- The Houston Post.

"Mesmerizing... with an authority and originality... and with a grasp of literary complexity that makes Scott Turow's novels pale by comparison -- Grisham returns." -- San Francisco Chronicle.

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