Theodore Boone by John Grisham - Book Review

 

 

Theodore Boone by John Grisham Book Review

 

 

Word on the street has it that Mister Grisham is slightly miffed at losing his reputation as the best selling writer of fiction to the Rowling girl. Someone; maybe Mister G himself, or perhaps some bright spark at his publishers, looked at the hoards of new adolescent readers Ms Rowling brought to the table and thought - Eh up, if only we could attract some of that lot!

Here's the result. Theodore Boone.

Theodore is a thirteen year old boy, sound familiar, who's always dreamt of becoming a judge, I kid you not, or at least a high profile lawyer. It isn't as ludicrous ot ridiculous as it sounds because both of his parents are lawyers and so was his uncle once, though he, the uncle, now seems to be living in semi disgrace, and we don't ever get to the bottom of that one.

Theo is already dishing out legal advice to his classmates, one suffering through parent's splitting, another on the cusp of having the family home repossessed. One can't argue with the topicality of that. I can't charge, he says when one of the kids offers payment, I don't have my law licence yet, but it sure won't be long in coming.

The main thrust of the story centres around a high profile murder case going on in the city. The accused is about to walk free due to insufficient evidence and when Theo stumbles on a crucial new witness just as the trial is ending, the story really gets under way.

It is clear from the reviews that many people did not realise this was a book primarily aimed at the youth audience, but don't let that put you off entirely. The story rattles along in the same old Grisham way. Of course it is well written, even allowing for the occasional breaks to explain to the youngsters and newcomers what exactly the legal terms and ramifications mean.

We suspect any Grisham reader will still want to read this and will enjoy doing so. The big question is; how will this book impress that new target audience?

Whether that's great, moderate, or not at all, you can expect to see more of these slimmed down, cut down, watered down, legal thrillers coming from Mister G in his quest to regain his crown.

After all, they are much shorter and quicker to write, and you could expect to see a couple of these beasties churning off the production line every year if the demand was there, and it just might be at that.

Despite everything we enjoyed it. It is a good read and well worth a second look.

So what's next? The Rowling girl creating a wicked witch in the courtroom? Now that we would like to see.

 

Time for some video methinks. Here is a privately made trailer for the book Theodore Boone, and I have to say it is very professional, well done to them for that. 

 

 

You can read another John Grisham book review here and you can hear and see the man himself talking about his characters too.