The Confession

The confession is written by John Grisham, an author known for his Crime, Legal Thriller Genre.  It revolves around an young Innocent man (Donte Drumm) wrongly convicted for a rape and murder.  The story is fast paced and is mostly dealt with Donte's final 4 days in death row.

The novel is divided into 3 parts, The Crime, The Punishment and The Exoneration.  The story travels between the past and the present and leaves the reader completely hooked.  If any part of the story is missed then it would be difficult to draw conclusions.  Whenever death is concerned with a story, there is a connection between the faith in the Almighty and the legal issues.  So this is the backdrop of this whole novel.  Sometimes I felt some of the legal issues were overwhelming and some were going above my head.  But none the less, it drove home the point to be understood.

The story starts with the confession of Travis Boyette to the Topeka's Pastor, Keith Schroeder, about a crime he had committed.  He hands over a piece of the news paper and says that the Texas state is about  to execute the wrong person, for a crime that he had committed.  Boyette has a brain tumor which literally kills him every moment and the doctors opine that he would have a few months to live.  This being another strong reason that he wants to save Donte Drumm who is on the death row.

The story shifts to Texas where a detailed account is given on the missing of the teenager Nicole Yarber and how Donte Drumm was accused and made to confess that he had raped and killed Nicole.  The primary witness was Joey Gamble lies who he had seen Donte on the night of Nicole's disappearence.  With no body found, the witness and the confession becomes important in the trial and Donte Drumm is sent to the Death row.  Donte spends 9 years on death row with 8 years on solitary confinement.  A troubled body and soul, Travis is constantly in the dilemma if he must step up to the moment to save Donte and finally Keith convinces him and takes him to Texas, violating parole, to save the innocent

The chapters are so deliberately written that the reader hopes and prays for a miracle at the final moment to save Donte Drumm.  Things turn in favor of Donte when Joey Gambles signs an affidavit that he has lied and Travis arrives at the final moment and gives his confession to the whole world.  2/3rd of the book leaves us hooked as we expect the unexpected to happen.  The remaining 1/3rd of the book or starting with the Exoneration part of the book, was not so exciting as we already know that Robbie flak the attorney of Donte, will be filing lawsuit and it will be mostly Tit for Tat.  But one part where Travis reveals the grave where he had buried Nicole was interesting.

When Travis escapes all the attention and maintains a low profile, we learn that he was not as terminally ill as he had confessed to be.  Keith was hoping that he would be found soon because if he commits another crime then Keith would be in serious trouble with the law.  Fortunately Travis gets caught and he takes the "needle" and Keith gets a promoted as a Senior Minister at a Lutheran church in Texas.  All ends well reminding the adage, "as you sow so you reap".