The Boys from Biloxi

3 stars. It's been a while since I've read a Grisham book and I don't think this was the one to jump into because it took way too long to get started, filling pages with background on the coastal town of Biloxi, the Croatian immigrants who settled there, the history through generations until we finally come to the current showdown between two childhood friends whose paths in life diverged – one followed his lawyer father and became a district attorney, the other also followed his father who runs the criminal underworld in the community nicknamed the Dixie Mafia. The setup leads to a final courtroom drama, which Grisham handles like the maestro he is, but it was too little, too late for me. I found myself longing for an editor who would have helped the author trim the fat from this book and fashion it into the faster-paced legal thriller Grisham fans wait for. If you like epic sagas of good vs. evil, personified by two men from opposite sides of the law, this book will delight you. If you're looking for nuanced story telling with characters who grow and change during the narrative, this might not be the right fit.

My thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy.