John Grisham is the author of scores of novels of varying quality and two collections of short stories, if memory serves. Sparring Partners is a ‘novelty’, in that it collects three novellas, ranging in time from the 1980s to the ‘present’, or at least some point when texting from cellphones is a possibility. As a collection, it’s OK — enjoyable enough reading if one needs a distraction, a bit like a sitcom. Two of the novellas are legal dramas, and the other is more of a human-interest story set on Death Row that allows Grisham to scratch his ever-present itch at sneering at the law & and order culture of the South. The first story, “Homecoming”, is the most interesting but it cheats by being set in Clanton, MS, using the reader’s affection for previously established characters (and they’re all here: Jake, Harry, Lucien, and even Reuben Atlee) get the drama off to a quick start. “Strawberry Moon”, the aforementioned Death Row story, features a man condemned to the Row as a minor for his partner in a home robbery turned double murder, one who only has one wish before he dies; and the third is about two brothers who are both stereotypes trapped in a law firm together by their imprisoned father’s contract skills, who realize a plan to relieve the old man of some of his hidden cash reserves — but things go sideways. None of the stories have real resolutions, just pregnant stopping points that indicate the way Grisham wants them to go, but can’t be bothered, and none of them appeared to involve any real effort. It’s not bad reading, it’s just not memorable or re-readable. Unfortunately, that’s a fairly common description of his stuff these days.