Extremely disappointing. I absolutely love John Grisham books. The stories are captivating, intriguing, mysterious… always the best. First of all, I did not realize this is just three short stories., the first story with Jake Brigance starts out fabulous and you can’t help but be pulled in. And just like that … it ends, with really no explanation. Then, you’re dumped into a second story ( that could not possibly be written by John Grisham) the writing is terrible, the sentence structure is confusing and grammatically odd. I wish the whole book had been the first story with Jake Brigance. It was such a great start and then it just dropped off the cliff.

I expected a novel, but got three great stories instead. He produces a trick at the end that leaves your mind flowing like a river filled with possibilities. I just wish there was a fourth novella.

While Mr. Grisham must have had something in mind based on the title, it didn’t work for me. Since he’s a literary giant, his editor and publisher went along with it, despite better judgement. Even hard core Grisham fans will be puzzled by this one.

I did not like the format of this book! At the end of each story I thought it would be continued somewhere else. It was not your left with more questions than answer, felt very unfinished. definitely not worth the read

Not sure what this was.

These stories felt incomplete to me.

Grisham is a great, impressive storyteller. Sparring Partners did not seem fully baked, however.

Three separate stories. Perfect for reading during a flight or vacation. I originally thought that they would all come together in the third chapter (ie Rouge Lawyer) but was naught. A good read even though.

Very well done three short stories. A nice follow up to a character introduced in a previous book. An interesting look at death row. Lastly a story of greed and family disfunction at a high level. I felt as if I knew the characters. I laughed aloud while reading about one of the characters using a snake to murder his wife. That is a true skill to make the reader laugh about a character doing a heinous act.

3 great stories and I wanted more of it. The thing I liked the most is the people, although breaking the law, got away.