Bestselling author John Grisham's next book will not be a novel. This time Grisham is writing a nonfiction book about a baseball player falsely accused of murder. A USA Todayarticle explains the nonfiction story which has several similarities to the plots and settings of Grisham's novels.
The book is about Ronald Keith Williamson, the second-round draft pick of the Oakland Athletics in 1971. He later was convicted of murder in his Oklahoma hometown, spent 12 years in prison and came within five days of being executed. He was exonerated by DNA evidence and released from prison in 1999. After struggling with psychiatric disorders, he died on Dec. 4, 2004.
The tragic tale has a lot of traditional Grisham elements: small-town Southern setting, a guy wronged, a murder, a trial, imprisonment, exoneration and baseball. Grisham, who was born in Jonesboro, Ark., dreamed of becoming a pro baseball player before attending Mississippi State, then law school at the University of Mississippi.
Rubin says the book is about 75% finished and adds that Williamson's family is fully cooperating with the author. The tale is more proof that "truth can be stranger than fiction."
Grisham's publisher, Stephen Rubin of Doubleday Broadwa, told USA Today that Grisham will be switching back to fiction again for his 2008 release.
