SYCAMORE ROW by John Grisham

Finished We 1/1/20 New Years Day

I bought this paperback at the library book sale: Sa 6/7/19
It's over six hundred pages, but very hard to put down.

Jake Brigance is the lawyer that the old man chooses to be executor. Jake is not working for the housekeeper, Lettie, but he is only acting to make sure that every aspect of the will is carried out explicitly.

The novel is set in Ford County, Mississippi. Grisham's first novel was 'A TIME TO KILL' and 'SYCAMORE ROW' has a few of the characters from the first novel, but it's not really a sequel.

The title is not mentioned until over six hundred pages into the novel.

Seth Hubbard is the old man. Herschel and Ramona are his son and daughter.
Ancil Hubbard is the man's long lost brother.

Judge Atlee is the presiding judge.

THE PREMISE:

An old man is dying of cancer. He's a very wealthy recluse and he commits suicide by hanging.
He has composed a second, handwritten will (holographic will) the day before his death.
He cuts out all of his family and leaves all of his wealth to his black caregiver/ housemaid.
His estate is worth more than 24 million before taxes.
5% goes to a brother that is missing and the man had not seen in decades.

The man's brother and sister fight to have the handwritten will declared invalid and for the first will recognized. This splits the inheritance between his family members. They 'lawyer up' and even the grandchildren hire lawyers.

THE TWIST:

The reason he is leaving his fortune to his housekeeper is that he witnessed his father leading a mob, lynch the woman's grandfather. The housekeeper's mother was left naked, her house was burned to the ground, and all of the family was run off the land. This area was called 'SYCAMORE ROW'. Five sycamore trees were planted in a row, and this is were the grandfather was hung and where the rich old man chose to die.

THE REVEAL:

The 'long lost' brother is found in Alaska. One of the lawyers for the housekeeper finds this man, and he makes a video taped deposition that is shown at the trial. Once the jurors see this video statement, they now know why the man left all of his money to the housekeeper and they vote to acknowledge the second handwritten will.

A link to the book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycamore_Row


At the end of the book the author talks about how he wrote 'SYCAMORE ROW'. I was surprised to learn that his first novel, 'A TIME TO KILL', was a real flop when it was first released. Only five thousand copies were printed, but later it was given a 're-launch' and millions were sold and a very successful movie was created based on the novel. Many readers feel that this is his best novel. For many, many years Grisham wanted to revisit the characters of 'A TIME TO KILL' and 'SYCAMORE ROW' was written decades later.