The Chamber
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- This article about the John Grisham novel called The Chamber. For the game show, please see The Chamber (game show).
The Chamber (1994) is a legal/suspense novel by noted American author John Grisham. It features a discussion about capital punishment. Set around the Mississippi State Penitentiary, it is the story of an old man and former Klansman named Sam Cayhall who is convicted of murder and sentenced to death by gas chamber twenty years after his bombing of a Jewish lawyer's office.
His paternal grandson, Adam Hall, who has had his name changed because of the disgraceful family history, journeys south from Chicago to represent Sam in the final month before the date of execution. Adam decided to become a lawyer soon after his father, Eddie Cayhall, committed suicide on the day that Sam was convicted of murder in Mississippi. Adam is determined to argue a stay for his grandfather, in spite of Sam's violent past, because Sam is one of the few living links to his family's history. It transpires that Sam did not in fact commit the actual crime for which he's been found guilty, but has instead a long and largely secret history of the Klan-related crime. As Adam desperately argues motion after motion, the story moves to its last gory moments.
The novel combines elements of legal commentary and suspense to fully illustrate the complications surrounding various legal issues, such as the death penalty and racism.
In 1996, The Chamber was made into a movie starring Gene Hackman and Chris O'Donnell.
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| John Grisham's novels (as of 2005) | |
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1980s:
A Time to Kill
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