He again replies that he has nothing to say. On the day of Banning's scheduled execution, the governor of Mississippi meets privately with Banning and offers to commute the sentence to life imprisonment if Banning will state a reason for having committed the murder. Pete is allowed to visit Liza at the State Hospital, where she says, "Can you forgive me?" He says he cannot but that he continues to love her. The jury returns a verdict of guilty with a sentence of death by electrocution. The DA makes a straightforward case that is not refuted in any way by Wilbanks, at Banning's insistence.
Joel and Stella attempt to visit their mother at the State Hospital, but are denied access per instructions from Pete. Banning family attorney John Wilbanks attempts to construct a defense but Pete refuses to allow a request for change of venue or preparation for a plea of temporary insanity. The pastor's widow, Jackie Bell, takes her three children to her hometown in Georgia.Īfter some internal friction, a grand jury returns an indictment of first degree murder. To all inquiries about his actions, Pete replies, "I have nothing to say." His children are instructed to stay away from Clanton. Sheriff Nix Gridley drives out to the Banning farm, arrests Pete and jails him without resistance. Pete makes no secret of what he has done and the town is aghast. The pastor exclaims, "If it's about Liza, I can explain." Pete shoots Bell three times, killing him. He goes about his normal activities before heading into town, where he walks in on Dexter Bell, the pastor of the local Methodist church, and draws a gun. One morning, Pete rises and decides that today is the day for an act of killing. In Part One, "The Killing," Pete's wife Liza has recently been placed in a mental institution his children Joel and Stella are college students and his sister Florry is a would-be writer who lives on an adjacent parcel. He is owner of a 640-acre parcel in northern Mississippi. Pete Banning comes from a family that has farmed cotton for generations. It is the seventh Grisham novel to take place here, following A Time to Kill, The Summons, The Chamber, The Last Juror, Sycamore Row, and A Time for Mercy. The story takes place in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi, in Grisham's Ford County. The plot centers on the 1946 murder trial of prominent family patriarch Pete Banning, a war hero who has returned home from the Second World War.
In addition to Grisham's typical legal thriller, the book was also characterized by reviewers as "a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, a family saga, a coming-of-age story," "a period piece", and a war novel. The Reckoning is a best-selling novel by John Grisham.
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