John Grisham admits he ‘stole’ a story for new novel ‘The Reckoning’

He admits to the literary larceny, saying it’s a story he heard three decades ago as a Mississippi lawmaker, where he often drank coffee and listened. “There were some big-time storytellers there,” he said.

His new novel, “The Reckoning,” opens — just as the story he heard — with a prominent man fatally shooting another prominent man three times, driving back home and waiting for the sheriff to arrest him. And when the sheriff arrived, the man said, “I have nothing to say.”

For Grisham, “The Reckoning” varies from the 39 other books he has written.

“I have a lot of loyal fans. They want to be entertained with a fast read,” he said. “This is very different. That’s been the reaction.”

John Grisham’s latest novel, “The Reckoning” (Photo: Penguin Random House)

Unlike his previous books, this one takes place in a time before he was born.

“It’s not necessarily a legal thriller,” he said. “Then it takes a hard left turn and goes to war. No one expects that from me.”

He read about a dozen books on the Bataan Death March, he said. “It’s hard to believe the human spirit could survive something like that.”

Thousands of the more than 60,000 prisoners of war didn’t survive the three-month march across the Philippines during World War II. An Allied military commission later concluded that many of these POWs had been subjected to horrible abuse and wantonly killed.

Richard Howorth, owner of Square Books in Oxford, which hosted Grisham’s first bookstore signing, praised the meticulous research.

“John Grisham delivers his reliable thriller dope and a tense legal trial, but here laced with some provocative underpinnings of serious philosophy of the value of one human’s life, and the relative difference, if any, between honor in war and honor at home,” he said.

Grisham leaves the answer up to the audience, Howorth said. “It may vex the reader looking for something more formulaic, but I found it impressively ponderous.”

John Evans, owner of Lemuria Bookstore in Jackson, believes that Grisham’s latest novel is a breakthrough. “It’s his most literary work since ‘A Time to Kill,’” Grisham’s first novel, he said. “It’s neat that he’s going back to his roots.”

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Grisham said the idea of being literary never crosses his mind.

“I don’t think in those terms,” he said. “When I start a new book, my goal is to write the best book ever and to deliver a story that will capture the attention of readers for a few days and give them something to think about.”

Evans called “The Reckoning” a “humdinger. If people didn’t know it was a Grisham book, they would think this was a hot, new writer.”

After her success with the Harry Potter series, author J.K. Rowling wrote novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Earlier in his career, author Stephen King penned books under Richard Bachman. In each case, the real author was eventually exposed.

Grisham said he has never considered writing under a pseudonym.

“I’m not sure what the purpose is,” Grisham said, noting that he has still been able to write other books, including a nonfiction book and one on baseball. As long as he produces one legal thriller a year, he said he believes he keeps his fans happy.

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So far, reviews for his new novel are mixed. Grisham said he never reads reviews.

“They are rarely going to be good,” he said. “When people review popular fiction, you know it’s never going to be pretty.”

Sometimes friends send him positive reviews or sometimes he hears about negative ones, he said. “I’ll hear ‘Grisham got trashed in the Washington Post.’ ”

For him, “life is too short to fret over bad reviews,” he said. “I’m almost to the point where they leave me alone.”

“The Reckoning” shares the same ending as the story he heard at the state Capitol, where he served as a lawmaker from 1983 to 1990.

He never wrote down the story, but he never forgot the tale.

“If anybody knows whether it is true,” Grisham said, “I would love to hear about it.”

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