The Confession (novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | John Grisham |
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| Original title | TheConfession |
| Country | U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Legal thriller |
| Publisher | Doubleday (US), Century (UK) |
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Publication date
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2010 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 418 (Hardcover 1st edition) |
| ISBN | |
The Confession is a 2010 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, his second novel to be published in 2010 (the previous was Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer). The novel is about the murder of a high school cheerleader and how an innocent man is arrested for it. This was Grisham's first novel to be released simultaneously in digital and hardcopy format.
In 1998, Travis Boyette abducted and raped Nicole "Nikki" Yarber, a teenage girl and high school student in Slone, Texas and buried her body in Joplin, Missouri some 6 hours from Slone. He watches unfazed as the police arrest and convict Donté Drumm, a black high school football player with no connection to the crime. Despite his innocence, Drumm is convicted and sentenced to death. He has been on death row for nine years when the story takes place. While Drumm serves his prison sentence, lawyer Robbert "Robbie" Flak fights his case while Black Americans protest his false conviction, creating a law and order situation.
Meanwhile, Boyette had fled to Kansas and had lived there ever since. He had been suffering with a brain tumor for the past nine years and his health had deteriorated. In 2007, with Drumm's execution only a week away, reflecting on his miserable life, he decides to do what is right: confess. He meets a pastor Reverend Keith Schroeder who takes him to Slone. Despite his confession to the public, the execution proceeds on and Drumm is executed by lethal injection. The town is beset by racial tension though a riot is averted. Boyette then reveals the resting place of Nikki and DNA samples show signs of rape and assault on her body. But before there is an arrest warrant for him, he takes off. In Slone Flak leads legal attacks on those responsible for the false conviction and execution, while Schroeder agonizes over both what he had done (taken a paroled convicted rapist who was also probably a murderer) out of his parole zone (the state of Kansas). Schroeder winds up making his actions public, paying a fine, resigning from his church and accepting a position at a reform-minded church in Texas. This latter happens after Boyette is caught attempting another rape.
Donté's ordeal begins as a 17-year-old with everything going for him. He has only had mild altercations with law enforcement, for possession of marijuana when he was a little younger. Now he is a star on the high school football team and loved by the girls. His potential and ambition inspire jealousy in Joey Gamble who, when rejected by Nicole, takes this out on Donté. Joey tips off the police with an anonymous phone-call, later proven to be his using voice-analysis. When the police take Donté in for questioning, this is not formally an arrest and Donté naĩvely but in good faith, to expedite matters, signs away his Miranda rights. This is the catalyst which sees him detained for the next nine years and ultimately executed.
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