I am once again a James Patterson fan! I just finished this book last night and I have to say that I really loved it. It only took me 2 days to finish and I had a hard time putting it down.
Trial is truly a departure for James Patterson. I almost felt like I was reading a John Grisham book. This book is not about Alex Cross at all! He isn’t even in this book. It is told as a retelling of a story told by his ancestors and passed down in his family. This is the story of Alex Cross’s family in the early 1900′s.
The main character of the book is a white lawyer who is sent back from Washington to his childhood home of Eudora, Mississippi at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt has outlawed lynchings and yet he keeps getting reports that they are still happening in large numbers in the small cities of the south. The lawyer, Ben Corbett is sent to document these reports as fact or fiction so that Roosevelt can act on the information.
This book details in uncensored ways the cruelties and discrimination that colored people were experiencing in that time period. It gives you a bird’s eye view of their lives and the utter desperation they felt at not being able to do anything right. If they did something they were lynched, if they didn’t do anything they were lynched, if they were in the wrong place and the wrong time they were lynched. I also like that the author is not merely trying to make a statement about the evil nature of white people. He showed that many of their decisions were not actually based on hate but on fear. They feared that they would lose all that they had to the colored people who had only recently been freed. Most importantly they feared a loss of income by colored men who now would take their jobs. Excusable? Absolutely not! However, it does show another side and doesn’t just assume that people are evil and do bad things because of the hatred in their heart. Another interesting point of view is that of the Ku Klux Klan members in this book. He asserts that they were not merely haters of colored people but of ALL people who they felt had caused harm to them. There is a graphic description of a lynching of a Jewish man who they believe has jilted some of the wealthy women out of money in an attempt to sell them undeeded land in Louisiana.
The biggest part of this that I found interesting and frustrating at the same time is the justice system as depicted in this story. There was no justice for people of color in those days. If you were arrested you were going to jail. They would allow you a trial but it would look nothing like a fair trial and it would end in nothing that even remotely resembles justice. The frustrating part is that it is not so hard to see that this is more truth than fiction. The courts really were partial and they really did dole out their own form of justice.
I have to tell you that there is an unbridled use of an offensive word in this book so if you are easily offended by it’s use then you should avoid this book. I think that it was completely necessary to use it in order to tell this story with any sort of accuracy. I think it was used as it was always used in reality. I think it was not used as a creative word to make the book more interesting or for entertainment shock value. It was merely a fact that had to be included.
I love history and I love crime dramas. This book gave me both. I love that as predictable as I thought it was going to be it still gave me a twist at the very end that I just didn’t expect. I am renewed in my appreciation of James Patterson and his ability to tell a story. This is a must read for Patterson fans and those who have been disheartened by his recent attempts. Enjoy!
