A Painted House by John Grisham

Monday, August 20 through Friday, September 7, 2001. Read by Jim Fleming.

This story is not what you would expect from the usual Grisham novel — no lawyers in sight. There is a murder, though, which seven-year old Luke Chandler has the misfortune to witness. The tale is set in rural Arkansas in 1952, on the Chandler family farm. The family has hired itinerant Mexicans and “hill people” to harvest 80 acres of cotton. This is country straight out of John Grisham’s childhood, and his pleasure in it is obvious.

(Doubleday; ISBN: 038550120X )

Theme: John Hartford: I am a Man of Constant Sorrow from the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Mercury)