Witness to a Trial, by John Grisham

You've got to hand it to John Grisham.  Of course anything he writes will be a runaway bestseller, but on top of the sales of his latest novel The Whistler, he will surely also sell millions of copies of the short story prequel Witness to a Trial.

It's not that this is bad writing.  It's not that there's something compelling about it.  It's a decent Grisham effort that builds some suspense.  You just need to know what to expect.  Witness to a Trial provides some background for and introduces some characters from The Whistler.  If you are planning to read The Whistler, Witness to a Trial is worth the time to read it.  But if you don't read, Witness you're not going to be missing much.  Further, Witness to a Trial is not a stand-alone story.

Bottom line: I can take it or leave it.  There are worse ways to spend 99 cents.