Two boys meet as young friends and form a strong bond through their shared love of sports, in this case baseball and American football. On another continent, it could have been football and cricket or rugby. They are talented kids, cracking the minor leagues, but not quite good enough to make it to the big time. Inevitably, there is heartbreak ahead, as countless kids experience when they realise they won’t achieve their dreams.

Their parents know each other and nod, though are never close friends. This is a story that has been told a thousand times before about rival families and how that rivalry develops, and no doubt it will be told another thousand, though never before by the master of modern popular thriller literature, John Grisham. He always brings something new and interesting to the table, as he does here.

It’s a story of choices, the choices those boys choose, and the choices their parents make, indeed the choices we must all make when we are young, choices we have to live with forever. Which fork in the road do they take? They don’t know it, but their entire future depends on it. 

Will they remain friends for life, or slowly drift apart? Will they find success in their chosen careers outside sport? Where will destiny take them, and will they remain alive to see the future?

The good news is this book was published in 2022 and a good second-hand copy can now be bought for less than a single squid, buck, or euro, whatever your preference, (plus postage) and it’s worth buying too. A chunky book running to over 450 pages of small print. I reckon that's over a 150,000 words, so ideal for the reader who enjoys the longer book, a story to last a good while, and it's worth reaching the end, because you can expect a cataclysmic finale.

“The Boys of from Biloxi” by John Grisham is a super read that will keep you entertained right up to the last page, the last sentence, and we gave it a solid 4.5 out of 5.