The Chamber - by John Grisham Hardcover

About the Book

The author of the number-one bestsellers The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client has written another spellbinding tale of legal intrigue sure to hit bestseller lists this summer. Twenty-two years after the bombing deaths of a civil rights activist's two sons, the Klansman on death row for their murders is mysteriously aided in his last appeal by a young lawyer in a major firm. But why?

Book Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "A dark and thoughtful tale pulsing with moral uncertainties . . . Grisham is at his best."--People

In Chicago's top law firm, a young lawyer stands on the brink of a brilliant career. Now twenty-six-year-old Adam Hall is risking it all for a death-row killer and an impossible case: Sam Cayhall is a former Klansman and unrepentant racist facing the death penalty for a fatal bombing in 1967. Cayhall has run out of chances--except for one: a determined lawyer who just happens to be his grandson.

While the executioners prepare the gas chamber, while the protesters gather, and while the TV cameras wait, Adam has only days, hours, minutes to save his client. For between the two men is a chasm of shame, family lies, and secrets--including the one secret that could save Sam Cayhall's life . . . or cost Adam his.

From the Back Cover

In 1967 in Greenville, Mississippi, known Klan member Sam Cayhall is accused of bombing the law offices of Jewish civil rights activist Marvin Kramer, killing Kramer's two sons. Cayhall's first trial, with an all-white jury and a Klan rally outside the courthouse, ends in a hung jury; the retrial six months later has the same outcome. Twelve years later an ambitious district attorney in Greenville reopens the case. Much has changed since 1967, and this time, with a jury of eight whites and four blacks, Cayhall is convicted. He is transferred to the state penitentiary at Parchman to await execution on death row. In 1990, in the huge Chicago law firm of Kravitz & Bane, a young lawyer named Adam Hall asks to work on the Cayhall case, which the firm has handled on a pro bono basis for years. But the case is all but lost and time is running out: within weeks Sam Cayhall will finally go to the gas chamber. Why in the world would Adam want to get involved?

Review Quotes

"Totally hypnotic . . . full of booming, echoing prose . . . Scenes unfold and unfold and you can't stop reading."--The Washington Post

"Compelling . . . powerful . . . The Chamber will make readers think long and hard about the death penalty."--USA Today

"The Chamber does grab hold and it doesn't let go."--The Boston Globe

"Mesmerizing . . . with an authority and originality . . . a grasp of literary complexity that makes Scott Turow's novels pale by comparison."--San Francisco Chronicle

"His best yet."--The Houston Post

About the Author

John Grisham is the author of numerous #1 bestsellers, including The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Innocent Man, The Whistler, The Boys from Biloxi, and many more. His books have been translated into nearly fifty languages. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. He lives on a farm in central Virginia.