The Appeal: John Grisham

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Thirteen-year-old Theodore Boone knows every judge, police officer, and court clerk in Strattenburg. He has even helped bring a fugitive to justice. But even a future star lawyer like Theo has to deal with statewide standardized testing. I'm a Grisham fan - I've read pretty much all his books. If his liberal leanings weren't apparent before, they certainly are now ("not that there's anything wrong with that"). I guess you could call this Grisham's response to all the recent rantings by the right about liberal judges changing the laws to suit their leftist politics and agendas. Make no mistake - this book was written to make a political statement. Other calls went to other lawyers, then to the reporters, and within minutes the word was on the street and spreading rapidly. Timely, I should say, that I thought about re-reading this when the news about the passing of Associate Justice of

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Masterful – when Grisham gets in the courtroom he lets rip, drawing scenes so real they're not just alive, they're pulsating’ – MirrorAccording to Grisham, conservative judges are bought and paid for by evil "big business", never saw a trial verdict for the underrepresented and oppressed victim that they didn't want to overturn, and always rule in favor of evil "big business" even where the liability is clear-cut. John Grisham is now an institution -- a writer whose bestselling status is assured, So assured, in fact, that expectations for each new book are as high as can be imagined. Does The Appeal make the grade? And will it appeal to Grisham admirers -- or disappoint them?

The Appeal - John Grisham - Books - Review - The New York Times The Appeal - John Grisham - Books - Review - The New York Times

Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother are sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer leaves Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most-sought-after dead body in America. Though he had no involvement in the crime other than being in Garth's car, Woody is arrested as an accomplice. He's going to need serious legal advice to avoid juvenile prison. As tensions mount, Hailey hires the inexperienced Jake Brigance to defend him. It's the kind of case that could make a young lawyer's career. They are at the center of a multimillion-dollar legal hurricane: twelve men and women who have been investigated, watched, manipulated, and harassed by high-priced lawyers and consultants who will stop at nothing to secure a verdict. Now the jury must make a decision in the most explosive civil trial of the century, a precedent-setting lawsuit against a giant tobacco company. But only a handful of people know the truth: that this jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him.Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in unsavory ventures. A candid look into the seedy underbelly of campaign finance in the U.S. It's no secret that in this country, money and politics walk hand in hand, with Big Business barons leveraging their own interests against those of the people and, at times, basic procedural justice. It is this systemic prioritization of corporate well-being over human well-being on which Grisham wishes to shine a light. The stakes in the novel's plot are high: corporate crime on the largest scale. The duo of lawyers at the centre of the narrative are Mary and Wes Grace, who succeed in a multimillion dollar case against a chemical company, who have polluted a town with dumped toxic waste. A slew of agonising deaths have followed this, but lawyers for the chemical company appeal, and a variety of legal shenanigans are employed -- and it is certainly not clear which way the scales of justice will be finally balanced. I've been thinking I wanted to read a good court-room drama for a while now and I remembered that John Grisham had written a few pretty good ones...so I gave this one a shot. Unfortunately there was very little of that here but still, an interesting plot was starting to develop and even though there didn't seem to be any central main character in this novel, the various points of view on the plot by the host of minor characters was working for a while. Question number two: ‘Do you find, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the contamination was the proximate cause of the death or deaths of (a) Chad Baker and/or (b) Pete Baker?’ Answer: ‘Yes, for both.’”

Summary and reviews of The Appeal by John Grisham - BookBrowse Summary and reviews of The Appeal by John Grisham - BookBrowse

Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends, as well as Little League all-stars. But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions. Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to “clean up the Coast.” Hugh’s father became the “Boss” of Biloxi’s criminal underground. One day at the Dessoto County courthouse, Grisham was inspired to start a novel. Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill Guardian accepts only a few innocence cases at a time. Cullen Post travels the country fighting wrongful convictions and taking on clients forgotten by the system. With Quincy Miller, though, he gets far more than he bargained for. Powerful, ruthless people murdered Keith Russo, and they do not want Quincy Miller exonerated.

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Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.