Grif Stockley
Religious Conviction
The action occurs in Arkansas, but this novel's spiritual territory is Graham Greene country: the plot involves religion, murder, suicide and pornography. The two writers also share a preoccupation with their characters' moral dilemmas. Stockley's hero is Gideon Page, a struggling attorney and lapsed Catholic living in a community where nearly everybody else belongs to the fundamentalist sect, Christian Life. Page is approached by the area's most powerful lawyer to assist in the murder trial of Leigh Wallace, daughter of Christian Life's leader, who is accused of killing her husband. As he tries to get information from an uncooperative client and witnesses who are either lying or stonewalling, Page gradually realizes that he has that he has been lured into a case that is not at all what it seems. (Simon and Schuster, 1994)
Excerpt from Religious ConvictionBanging doors, yelling, any behavior except "Yes, sir" or "No, ma'am," uttered with a respectful tone minus a snide expression were forbidden to me and my sister Marty when we were growing up in eastern Arkansas. Even when my father was at his craziest, we went around smiling like slaves who were working up their nerve to ask for permission to marry someone off the plantation.
Praise for Religious ConvictionStockley . . . has produced a high-quality thriller with more on its mind than whodunit. -- Publishers Weekly Religious Conviction is another in the parade of lawyer mysteries that began with Scott Turow and flowered with John Grisham. But author Grif Stockley is a better writer than either. -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer Grif Stockley delivers another gripping thriller that is rich with humor, local color, vivic characterization and intrigue. -- Mostly Murder |
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