Rating: 
Summary: Death Row--Good Read
Review: This is a good book giving insight to the justices and perhaps injustices of death row. It is a long story(Paperback is 600+ pages)which will loose some readers because often the story seems to provide filler information not critical to the plot. However, stick with it, it is definitely worth reading. There are plenty of twists which keep your interest.
Rating:
Summary: Sad American History
Review: This is a very good book , it really touches on the reality of death row. Grisham gets into the head of a death row convict , and also shows how justice isn't always fair .
Rating:
Summary: A Slight Diversion From The Usual Format
Review: John Grisham explores a different style in his book The Chamber. Instead of building a story around a well meaning hero, this story is a character study of a death row criminal and how he got in his predicament. The story does not move very fast,which will lose some readers. It describes how Sam Cahill became the bitter old man that he is. Sam Cahill was raised in a narrow minded world which shaped him into committing a heinous crime. Throughout the story, one can feel all the emotions: loyalty, fear, anger, strength of character of this complex man as he relates to the system that tries to bring him down. It touches on many levels of morals as well as family issues. Whereas there are many legal ploys and a few other dramatics, John Gisham is able to show that he is successful at writing a character study novel.
Rating: 
Summary: John Grisham
Review: The book has a good beginning and plot. The suspense is also good and like all of Grisham's books the twists in along the story line are unusual and suspenseful, but the book tends to drag on and repeat itself. The ending is surpising. Not nearly as good as some other books by Grisham.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling subject and storytelling
Review: Anyone who wants to think seriously about the death penalty should, despite the fact that it is fiction, read this book. Grisham goes into the kind of detail about the process of appeals slated at staying the execution of a convicted criminal that, given his obviously careful research, educates you and keeps you reading. However, even more compelling and poignant is the story of the convict and the lawyer grandson who tries to save him. It is also a story about the racist south then and now which none of us should forget or ignore. Be ready to think, to cry, to change your mind.
Rating:
Summary: Death Row Tale
Review: A young attorney, Adam Hall, is confronted with his family's history, by defending his racist Uncle, Mississippi death row resident Sam Cayhall. Grisham does a good job depicting life on death row, and the laborious appeals process involved in trying to spare someone a trip to the chamber. Not a fast-paced thriller, but an interesting read.
Rating: 
Summary: How did this get published?
Review: This was one of the worst books I've read in my life. The dialog was terrible in the book and there were many loose ends and undeveloped subplots in the book. I can't go into details because it would give away the ending, but basically at the end of the book, you end up thinking to yourself, "Wait a minute, whatever happened to this person and this subplot? What did that event have anything to do with anything else in the book?" It was an example of sloppy thinking and poor editing on the editor's part. If you buy this book against my advice, I suggest that you read the dialog to yourself and see how phony it sounds. Nobody talks like that. Basically, Grisham is writing as he always has, he thinks he's writing a movie. It's not literature, it's Hollywood scenes on paper. It's really poor writing.
Rating: 
Summary: I threw it overboard.
Review: On the long haul from San Diego to Hawai'i, a seaman will read anything that falls to hand, just to break the monotony. This could be a cake recipe, a telephone bill, or the instructions on how to work the toilet--- ANYTHING will do for reading material, when one is facing 22 days of open, blue-water ocean and nothing else to do but stare at waves.Anything will do, that is, except John Grisham's "The Chamber." It does not distract from the monotony of a weeks-long passage: it greatly compounds the tedium. It is a chore to read: there is no pleasure in it. Indeed, at times it greatly aggravated, if not even induced, seasickness. The reader is not induced by the author to care about the characters in the book; no one cares if the old man gets gassed (indeed, the reader can hardly wait, just so the book will finally end); the reader does not care about the disgusting alcoholic aunt; and the reader certainly is not inspired to care about the spoild, personality-less main character (I mean, like, he's a -LAWYER- after all!). These people were written like cartoon characters: so trite and predictable that they could have been written by any one of ten thousand high school students who write the same dreck (dreck: "trash; exceedingly inferior merchandise") as a homework assignment. When I finished reading the book (ah, sweet mercy! Another ten pages would have killed me!), I vowed that no one else who came abord the vessel after me would be subjected to the same abuse. I took a nice fat felt pen and wrote the book's own obituary on the inside cover. "We consign this literary pile of steaming dingo poop to the deep watery abyss; to forever sleep in the yawning canyons of black, fathomless, liquid purgatory forever out of the reach of mankind; to remain there for ever and for ever, with the sure and present hope of -NO- ressurection. We also humbly apologice to Poseidon for polluting Your realm with this insulting offal." I then tossed the book overboard, 1180 nautical miles from the nearest land. I imagined ever sea denizen within a hundred miles felt the shock of impact, smelt the strong, foul odor, and hasty fled in terror. No doubt those creatures not fast enough, succumbed to the toxin and died, floating belly-up. Do yourself a big favor: if you see John Grisham's "The Chamber" washed ashore on the beach one summer day, approach no closer! Rather, call the Environmental Protection Agency and have them come out and clean it up. Same warning goes if you see this book in a book store.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting story, but...
Review: This was the first Grisham book that I've read, and I have some mixed reviews about it. While the plot and the story line are interesting and really makes you want to find out what happens next, the way the author presents the story, I feel, is a bit lacking. His writing style is plain and strictly to the point, and I personally enjoy reading novels that tend to be more emotional, elaborate, and powerful in the usage of language. Grisham presents the story, I guess, as a lawyer would, getting right down to the meat of the matter, but I feel he could make it just a bit more enjoyable to read. Also, it feels as if the story could be condensed into a somewhat shorter book; some of the material does seem a bit superfluous. I guess overall, his books are for the story (The plot of The Chamber is actually pretty good) which make for good movies, but if you want to really enjoy a book for it's artistic and literary merit, I'd suggest trying a different author.
Rating:
Summary: my review
Review: This is the book by Grisham that I enjoyed reading the most. It has all the elements to make it a great read: the lawyer who tries to save his grandfather from an atrocious death, the family wishing to see the killer of their sons finally put to death, and the people involved, wishing to use this case for political advancement. Great book and great plot.
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