Grisham's other novel set in Ford County is The Chamber (1994), an equally hard-edged look at racial and legal attitudes in contemporary Mississippi.

The Chamber follows the last month — a time punctuated by desperate, doomed appeals — leading up to the execution of an aged Klansman for murders committed in the 1960s bombing of a law office. Grisham lingers in his portrayals of the lawyers who devote their careers to death penalty appeals — they are idealists who use any means possible, including deceit, in seeking their seldom-achieved goals. Grisham continues to flesh out the observation that a legal proceeding is essentially a contest in which tactics matter and in which the truth is too often irrelevant.

Both Ford County novels present grim and challenging views of capital punishment, remarkable because these are popular novels yet the American public strongly supports the death penalty.

A real...