This book is a fast and easy read, and a important story to tell which led to good discussion on forensic science and the death penalty. Grisham writes it in a very straightforward style, but he can't seem to help adding tones of irony and cynicism throughout.

I'd long given up on reading Grisham after I'd read the first four or five legal-themed books. However, something in the synopsis of this book convinced me to give Grisham a chance, and I'm glad I did. The bleak setting (Oklahoma, mainly) and clear, dispassionate yet descriptive writing style reminded me of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. The main character was mildly unlikeable but eventually sympathetic. Truly horrifying is the dysfunction of the justice system as depicted in this tale. I will never look at someone on death row in quite the same way. That said, there's a great deal of DNA used in forensics today that would make Ron Williamson's saga obsolete. After I finished this book, I loaned it to two others who also enjoyed it a great deal. Highly recommend.

I read through the book halfway and it was very disturbing. I had to put the book down because it made me so angry. It makes you really question the legal system and law enforcement agencies. I will finish the book at a later date just to see how everything was resolved.
Couldn't make the discussion group and was sad to miss this one, I would have liked to see what everyone else thought of the book.

A good discussion book for the topic and the discussions it can spark about the criminal system and other issues.

I found the book a little rambling, about a man who was once a star athlete and amounts to nothing. He is just a big drunk who gets accused of a murder just because he is the town drunk. DNA evidence eventually clears him, but at the end you feel little sympathy towards a man that lead a pathetic life.

While this book sparked many conversations about the death penalty, the criminal justice system and prisoners with mental health issues, I felt the writing did not meet up to my expectations of a John Grisham book. The story itself was a heartbreaking account of not one, but many wrongful convictions, but Grisham seemed to have too many facts that he couldn't meld into the book in a way to keep the reader entertained.

I was fascinated by the story but constantly disappointed by Grisham's telling of it. I'll give him credit for taking a complicated tale with more characters than War and Peace to keep track of. But the development of any character other than Williamson and Fritz was very thin.

Overall, it was a good read and I'm glad I read it but it could have been much more.

I normally like Grisham’s works but do not normally read his genre. And I guess I have never read a nonfiction book on a crime before either, so I was unprepared for the way the story was told. I opened it up expecting to read a story, where characters interacted telling the story themselves and instead got a step-by-step factual telling of how events unfolded by a narrator.

It is the story of two murders that take place in Ada, Oklahoma in 1980s. It centering on the men who were convicted of the crimes and their innocents. It retold the horrible mistreatment they received at the hands of the judicial system and the failure of society to protect them from being unjustly convicted and treated inhumanely. It tells of the plight of the families of the convicted “innocent” men and how they were helpless to stop the horror that was happening to their loved ones, expanding on how the crime flows outward affecting all it touches. It tells of the single-minded focus and ignorance of the police investigating the crime. Detailing the desperation of the police to solve the crime quickly; pages and pages on the lengths they were willing to go. But mostly it told the sad tale of a man whose life was breaking apart from a mental illness, whose family was desperately trying to save him from himself and failed.

First off, I did not like the style of storytelling; it left me feeling detached from the characters in the tale. I wasn’t able to get a feel for them. Whenever it was stated how a character felt at the moment it sounded contrite. It in no way made me want to like them, in fact most all of them disgusted me.

Second, due to personal reasons I hate reading about things that happen to real people. It disturbs me that such things happen and I get no joy out of reading the grisly details of a murder. And the step by step telling of how innocent people became entangled and framed by law officials just made me want to hurl at the unjustness of it all. If anything this book opened my eyes to the inadequacies of our justice system; making me scared of any interaction with police if ever I am on that side of the law.

Third, I hate real life tales that end in tragedy. No matter how you try to spin it… The story of the people involved in The Innocent Man is a tragedy; there is no happy ending for any of them.

So is this book good? Oh ya, it’s good at telling you the horrible happenings in the lives of all involved. It exposes all the nastiness of a corrupt system and for people who love to follow murder cases…this book is it! Read it, enjoy it. For those whose hearts get ripped out at the misuse and abuse of others…avoid it, you will cry for a long time.

I am giving it a 3/5 just based on my personal preferences in what I expect from a good read.