John Grisham - The Abduction

Review live on bookshow by Brian Lowen 22nd Nov 2012 I understand that Theodore Boone has featured in other books by JG. He is a young 13 year old boy whose parents are both lawyers. He has a burning ambition to be a lawyer himself and so spends a lot of time at his parent’s small firm where he is given small jobs around the office. He is also well known at the local courthouse where he loves to listen in to the cases being tried in the court rooms. He hopes one day to rise to the position of a barrister or judge in his local courthouse. He is friendly with Alice who is in his class at school. She is a quiet, reserved girl who has dysfunctional parents, who often leave her on her own at night. Her Father is a faded rock star who spends a lot of time touring small towns with his band, and her Mother is usually high on drugs and out with her friends. Then one night April goes missing and the Police organise a manhunt for her abductor.. Theo’s Uncle Ike, a disgraced lawyer who keeps his ear to the ground in the shadier parts of town, and is a great friend of Theo, points him towards his Dad as being the abductor. Theo enlists the help of his schoolmates to search on their computers for all the places where his dad’s band might be playing and they eventually track him down. Ike drives Theo overnight to find the band who are playing for a college do in a small town four hours drive away. It doesn’t give much away to say that Theo succeeds where the police have failed. I found it quite an unusual type of story for John Grisham to write but of couse it still involves the law as all his stories do. A good tale, well written as usual, but not a thriller this time. Recommended.