Sycamore Row by John Grisham
A wealthy white man named Seth Hubbard is suffering from lung cancer. No one can he trust. Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten will before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree. His adult children, his black maid, and defense lawyer Jake Brigance are all involved in a struggle that is just as exciting and dramatic as the murder trial that, just three years earlier, elevated Brigance to the status of one of Ford County’s most infamous residents.
The second will leave you with a lot more questions than it will resolve. Why would Hubbard leave his maid almost his entire fortune? Have the medications and chemotherapy impacted his capacity to think clearly? What connection does this all have to the area once known as Sycamore Row?
Sycamore Row by John Grisham
208 used from $0.99
Free shipping
Amazon.com
He knew he was opening a can of worms when a wealthy white Southern businessman decided to hang himself from a sycamore tree and leave his whole fortune to his black housekeeper/maid. Seth Hubbard chooses to put an end to everything after growing weary of fighting his terminal sickness and using his money to carry out the unthinkable. But his relatives, who were left out of the will, were not going to stand by while $22 million and more were on the line. Enter Jake Brigance, the famous lawyer who won Carl Lee Hailey’s acquittal for killing the rapists of his daughter.
No one is more surprised than Jake when, a few days after Seth’s body is discovered, he receives his handwritten will in the mail. Jake feels grateful for his good fortune even though he has never met Seth and has no idea why he was picked. The business hasn’t exactly been booming since the Hailey trial, and Jake could use the cash. Jake accepts the case and is willing to accept the challenge. If you overlook the additional ramifications of carrying out a contentious will, it ought to be straightforward. After all, Seth has given clear instructions for what should be done with his assets but provides no genuine justification for his wishes.
The main plot is summarized in the book’s description: an elderly man hangs himself, leaves wealth to his maid, and omits his children from his will. The Deep South is involved, and race is a significant factor. There are avaricious attorneys, avaricious relatives, and a variety of tragic tales. Yes, it is extraordinarily nicely written by Grisham.
His children were left out of his will, along with his church and estranged brother. Lettie Lang, his housekeeper, received the remaining 90%. While there has been progressed in Ford County’s race relations, not everything has. As a result, Jake discovers that granting a dying man’s final requests will be challenging, and courtroom drama develops as some highly competent attorneys battle for a fortune, only to reveal long-buried family secrets and past transgressions. In addition to the predicted relations who are determined to invalidate the Will, hints of its potential cause almost every lawyer for miles in every direction to emerge from hiding in order to take a bite of this delicious cherry.
One would have to be exceedingly naive to think that every lawyer was a stickler for the law; you could count the number of honourable attorneys in this case on one hand, but you’d need many more hands to tally the number of attorneys who will resort to any dirty means to get their share.
