The Confession (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

• Keith Schroeder: 35 year-old pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Topeka, KS. Married to Dana. Main Protagonist.
• Dana Schroeder: Pastor Schroeder's wife. Mother of three boys.
• Travis Boyette: 44; a registered sex offender who drops into St. Mark's unexpectedly on Monday morning for a counselling session with the pastor.
• Nicole Yarber: 17 year-old senior at Slone High School, TX, and captain of the cheerleading squad, who vanished in 1998 and was never seen again.
• Donté Drumm: The 18 year-old local football star at Slone High who was convicted of killing Nicole Yarber in 1999. Donté is now 27, on death row, and is scheduled to be executed that week.
• Robbie Flak: 52, lawyer in Slone, TX, specializing in civil-rights cases. Flak is Donté Drumm's attorney, and has been handling his case for nine years.
• Roberta Drumm: 56; Donté Drumm's mother. A widow, and mother of four children.
• Joey Gamble: 27, Nicole's high school boyfriend at the time of the murder. Now working as an assistant manager at an auto parts discount warehouse.
• Drew Kerber: 45, chief detective of Sloan Police Department. Kerber was the detective who investigated Nicole Yarber's disappearance.
• Paul Koffee: District attorney who prosecuted in Nicole Yarber's case
• Reeva Pike: Nicole Yarber's mother. Formerly married to Cliff Yarber. Now on her second marriage.
• Martha Handler: A freelance investigative journalist interested in Donté Drumm's case, and working on a book about it.
• Kristina Hinze: 32, clinical psychiatrist hired by Robbie Flak to evaluate Drumm.
• Fred Pryor: Private investigator working for Robbie Flak.
• Sean Fordyce: New York talk-show host who is in Slone to interview Reeva Pike on the week of Donté Drumm's execution.
• Matthew Burns: 35, assistant prosecutor in Topeka, KS. Member of St. Mark's, and friend of Keith Schroeder.
• Vivian Grale: Judge who presided over Donté Drumm's trial.
• Elias Henry: 81, judge in East Texas. Friend of Robbie Flak's father.
• Gill Newton: Governor of Texas
• Carlos: Paralegal for Robbie Flak.
• Brother Ronnie: Pastor of First Baptist Church, Reeva Pike's church.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Innocent people are much likelier to waive their rights during an interrogation. They know they are innocent, and they want to cooperate with the police to prove their innocence.”

• “I'm a criminal defense lawyer, Judge. Optimism is not in my DNA.”

  Robbie Flak

• “...there are no rich people on death row.”

  Robbie Flak to Martha Chandler

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• He’s a two-faced, cutthroat, dirt-dumb, chickenshit, slimy little bastard with a bright future in politics.”

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• Martha Handler. She was an investigative journalist, a freelancer who worked for no one but was paid occasionally by the big magazines.

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• Reeva Pike was Nicole’s mother, a stout, boisterous woman who had embraced victimhood with an enthusiasm that often bordered on the ridiculous.

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• Sean Fordyce was a New York–based talk-show host who’d found a niche on cable sensationalizing murder cases.

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• Robbie Flak’s father purchased the old train station in downtown Slone in 1972,

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• Aaron Rey, a former gang member who’d served time for drug distribution and was now gainfully employed by the Flak Law Firm as a bodyguard, runner, driver, investigator, and anything else Robbie might need.

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• “Travis Boyette.” He instinctively spelled his last name for her. “Date of birth, October 10, 1963. Place, Joplin, Missouri. Age, forty-four. Single, divorced, no children. No address. No place of employment. No prospects.”

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• The district attorney was a man named Paul Koffee, a tough career prosecutor

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• Donté Drumm?” he asked as he handed the paper to Keith. “No.” “Black kid, small town in East Texas, convicted of murder in 1999. Said he killed a high school cheerleader, white girl, body’s never been found.”

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• eviscerated on cross-examination by Robbie Flak, who at one point demanded to have the dog brought to the courtroom, sworn in, and put in the witness chair.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

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• Slone: small town in Texas, main setting for story
• Topeka: city in Kansas where St. Mark's church was
• Houston
• Joplin
• Austin
• Wichita

Organizations edit see section history

• TCCA: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• AADP: Americans Against the Death Penalty
• TALK: Texans against Legalized Killing
• ATeXX: Abolish Texas Executions
• Texans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty: Add a description of this organization.
• Texas Defender Service (TDS): A non-profit organization established in 1995 by experienced death penalty attorneys. TDS aims to improve the quality of representation afforded to those facing a death sentence and to expose and eradicate the systemic flaws plaguing the Texas death penalty.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. John Grisham (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3557.R5355 C66 2010
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Violence and language.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Authors, A-Z › ( G ) › Grisham, John
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Suspense
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• John Grisham: Author's wbsite

More Books Like This edit see section history