John Grisham is best known for his stunningly written legal thrillers. One of his more recent novels, The Innocent Man, certainly confirms this statement. The kicker, though, is that this book is not a work of fiction, it is completely true.

If I hadn’t known that this book was nonfiction, I would have thought that it was just another fiction book. This book reads exactly like his other ones; funny at times and dramatic at others. Grisham writes in such a way that by the time it is finished, the reader is rooting for the underdog to succeed.

The Innocent Man tells a story of a man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Ron Williamson, a failed baseball player, is put to trial for a murder he did not commit. Sloppy legal work, false evidence, suspicious police work, and lies are what gets him sentenced to death. He spends year on Death Row for the murder of a person that he didn’t even know. Grisham exposes the flaws of the justice system, but also this false conviction set right, albeit at the expense of the wrongly convicted man.

Grisham pulls you in with his intelligent portrayal of a story, while making you laugh with witty comments and sarcasm. He depicts very well what it was like before more precise evidence, like DNA testing, existed. This is a book definitely worth reading. It will give you a better understanding of the injustices of our so-called “justice” system, but the happy ending a reader wants all along.