Ford County: Stories by John Grisham

 

Clanton's most ambitious hustler was a tractor dealer named Bobby Carl Leach. From a large gravel sales lot on the highway north of town, Bobby Carl built an empire that, at one time or another, included a backhoe and dozer service, a fleet of pulpwood trucks, two all-you-can-eat catfish cabins, a motel, some raw timberland upon which the sheriff found marijuana in cultivation, and a collection of real estate that primarily comprised empty buildings scattered around Clanton. Most of them eventually burned.

A collection of short fiction by the noted author of legal thrillers. This one scoots under the Western radar for the short story “Casino” a modern tale of scammery surrounding an Indian Reservation casino.

I’ve read a few of Mr. Grisham’s legal thrillers in the past and liked them. This is his foray into short fiction. Some legal. Most not. All set in the same Southern County. 

The man has an eye and an ear. The people ring true.

The stories?

Some are cynical, some are rambunctious with redneck riotous behavior, some are a gut-punch.

I cried at the last one.

This book tells me I need to re-evaluate the man.

Superlative stuff.