Rating: 
Summary: Ghost Writer
Review: Who wrote this book? It sure doesn't read like the first Grisham novels. I've read them all and now we are getting sleezy with people hopping in and out of beds, bad language, vugarity, and smut. He never used to write this way. A good thriller never needs this low grade writing. It wasn't even good sex. I will not have this filth in my home even if John Grisham writes it, but I don't think he did. He must have farmed it out and stuck his name on it. Many readers don't care about this sort of smut, but in our home we do and with all the aids stuff going on this book doesn't help the young readers. Clean it up or I'm out of your fan group.
Rating:
Summary: bad
Review: i have read all of his books and this one is like the last few...bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Grisham is as greedy as his protagonist
Review: I think I am through with John Grisham. His earlier books were exciting and featured some actual character development. His later books are completely formulaic, predictable and shallow. Perhaps this is because he is turning out books at a rapid-fire pace.To accept this book, you have to get past the initial actions of the protagonist, Clay Carter. Carter is a burnt-out public defender assigned to represent Tequila Watson, a 20-year-old recovering addict without a history of violence, in a murder trial. The murder is perplexing; Watson shied away from any confrontation and seemed to have no motive. Enter Max Pace: a "fire fighter" for a major pharmaceutical company, who explains that Watson has been taking Tarvan, a prescription drug rushed into the marketplace prior to the completion of a thorough study of its side effects. In a small percentage of its users, it causes sudden, unprovoked violent outbursts. Pace offers Clay millions of dollars to drop Tequila as a client, start his own firm, and represent the victims of the Tarvan killers in a quick and low-profile settlement. And so Clay does! He drops his client, keeps the scandal of Tarvan silent, and leaves Tequila to be sentenced to a life term in prison without ever mentioning Tarvan! From there, he enters the mass tort game, suing huge companies in class-action suits, angling for the biggest settlement possible--not for the good of the class-action clients, but for the greedy lawyers' benefit. How are we supposed to like this character whatsoever? He wrestles with the moral obligations to Tequila for about half a second before dumping him, and we are supposed to think that he has any scruples? His character, and the characters of his girlfriends and associates, are completely undeveloped and superficial. I give this book 2 stars because Grisham's take on the world of mass-tort law was interesting. I have no idea if it is accurate. I am a lawyer, and I bristle somewhat with the notion of portraying personal injury lawyers as greedy. Generally, the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies are greedy--not the attorney suing these companies who is actually working in his clients' best interests. I think Grisham writing a book about greed like this is particularly interesting. I wondered the whole time what he was getting paid to write this shallow book, if he has a private jet and a Porsche. He definitely worked harder when he wrote books like A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, and The Pelican Brief, and the results were a hundred times better.
Rating: 
Summary: Grisham is fading
Review: I am a big fan of John. But with the last two new books he pushed out, maybe for the money, he is disappointing. Is his star fading, or just the cloud of money overshadowing his talent? This book has no real plot and everything was too predictable. The facts were not believable and the characters lacked depth. But it has all the easy ready trademark of John. Not a bad book to burn through for summer reading, but nothing memorable.
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Summary: The hidden traps of greed.
Review: John Grisham is an accomplished author for a reason: he writes stories that capture the imagination and the reader quickly. After some rather unusual departures in his normal genre with the "Painted House" and "The Brethren (where you didn't know who to root for), he is back to the old formula of the underdog lawyer who gets in over their head. He is very good at developing and writing this "character", who is quite similar to the lead characters in The Firm, The Rainmaker, and The Client. What is different about this story than some of his others, is that character doesn't hesitate to quickly forget his conscience and his moral position as a public defender to make as much money as possible. The result is sometimes predictable, sometimes not. Grisham clearly has an agenda here about the result of too much money, too fast, and what damage it can cause. Is this autobiographical? The whimsical desire for a simpler life comes through over and over again. Overall, this book is nowhere near as good as some of his other classics, but was an enjoyable summer afternoon read. The clear shots taken at tort lawyers and the vast sums of money they receive on class action lawsuits, at the expense of those who are truly injured, is always welcomed!
Rating: 
Summary: KING OF TORTS
Review: I loved reading The King of Torts, by John Grishman. I enjoyed matching witts with him while reading this book. The excitment of trying to figure out the plot and the ending intreges me the most. I could not put the book down until I had finished it. While reading his books I'm always looking for his hidden clues to how the story will end. The King of Torts, unlike John Grishman's other books, the plot and ending was easy to figure out. I kept waiting for a surpise twist. This book was well written and I enjoyed it very much and will continue to read his books. John Grisham's (goodboy) Clay Carter's distaste for greedy Lawyers and Businessmen is suddenly changed when he also becomes the (badboy). Greedy and power hungry Clay becomes the very thing he hated. Becoming the King of Torts in less than a year, Clay was so busy spending his money, that he did not see his downfall coming, just as fast. Clay was lucky that his first love was there, when the King fell to help him start over. Morals vs. money and power become the issue in this story and it makes you want to slap Clay across the face as you see him change rapidly into our worst fear, a greedy Lawyer.
Rating:
Summary: the skipping stone
Review: We read it because it is Grisham...like a skipping stone. Nothing was developed. It skipped through plot and informed us that possibly our math wasn't as good as it should be. It skipped through characters...Like they were are in the shade waiting for something to happen.In fact, many characters left the book after making their money only to return to save the day and the main character. Yuck, skip it or maybe borrow but do not buy!
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Summary: Preaching to the Choir
Review: It isn't exactly news to most Americans that lawyers can be a venal bunch of cads. Yet John Grisham pounds home his "message" with such forceful clarity, you would think he had just discovered Betsy Ross was a traitor. Mysterious Max introduces Clay Carter, a youngish lawyer going nowhere, to the shadowy world of "mass torts". Mass torts are when a large group of consumers bring action against a corporation for a faulty product. One lawyer may represent thousands of citizens. The idea is to get the corporation to settle (without going to court). The payout is in millions; the lawyer skims his enormous fee off the top and frequently the consumers get only a pittance in a successful action. Clay's greed goes into overdrive and he is sucked into this new world of big money. By the end of his first year at his new job he is worth ten million, proud owner of a Gulfstream V, a gorgeous girl to hang on his arm and spend his money, and a definite thirst for more. This is a precarious and pressure-filled universe just barely operating on the sunny side of the law. One misstep is disastrous. Trouble is, the reader knows from the get go that Grisham is never in this world going to allow Clay to enjoy his misbegotten goodies. So we spend the whole book waiting for the other shoe to drop--and drop it does. Also given Mr. Grisham's former profession and his outlandish success at his present occupation, I think he is standing on a fairly fragile pulpit. Nevertheless, Mr. Grisham, as always, is a master storyteller so it isn't a chore to follow Clay through his Pilgrim's Progress and back. But be warned, this isn't a mystery or general fiction; it's an admonitory tale.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Old hat
Review: About a 31-year-old lawyer. Act 1: poor, ill-paid, but honest, still with "ideals" (fading, however, and with a lot of inner grunting about it) about his profession. Act 2: greed, easy money (lots of it), lavish spending it. Act 3: punishment (bankruptcy) and repentment, with the added but undesired bonus of an inflicted bilateral leg fracture and brain concussion (it does have a cathartic value). This is a re-hash, concerning the legal profession, of what A.J. Cronin gave us in 1937, with "The Citadel" about the medical one (be it known that I AM a doctor of medicine...), the only differences are in what money can buy in 2,000 a.D. and what it could buy in the '30's. However, Mr Grisham's description, with his inside knowledge, of the lawyers' arrogance, invasiveness, deviousness, greed and corruptness and being just hot-air balloons is always delectable and is worth the price of the book. Buy it to enjoy this description, it's the book's only redeeming feature and it justifies its still too-high price. Better to wait for the paperback edition, however. Mr Grisham had us used to much better stuff coming from his pen.
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Summary: Heard any good lawyer jokes lately? How about stories?
Review: Question: What is six Lawyers bound and gagged at the bottom of a lake?
Answer: A good start. I'm not a proponent of hanging all lawyers from the nearest tree, there are some decent hard working ones, but I personally would like to see a few in hell. When it comes to the law, I can't seem to get over the hump. I'm like the guy walking around with his personal rain cloud 12 inches above his head.
It doesn't matter which side of an issue I'm on, or how strong my case is, I seem to be on the wrong side. No matter how bullet proof my case seems to be the law twists it around and makes it weak. And of course my attorney, whom I thought to be a brilliant, eloquent tactician turns out to be Elmer Fudd in disguise. Beware of people that get injured while setting a fire to your house, they will get a lawyer or two and sue. Now John Grisham on the otherhand, is a winner when it comes to the law. He writes about about unsavory unethical members of the legal profession and makes millions doing it. Good for him. He's strayed a couple times but his best work is legal thrillers, and don't you get the feeling that it's a labor of love. That he despises the profession as much as we do and gets his jollies exposing unscrupulous characters. Oh sure it's fiction but can you doubt the truth is far away. The King of Torts like many of Grisham's novels is a story with a moral, no make that two morals. Moral one is that easy money leads to greed which leads to unscrupulous behavior, which then leads to a win at all costs mentality. Moral two I'm saving for later. Our protagonist, J Clay Carter, scoffed at the silliness of the wanton spending and bravado of the mass tort lawyers at a mass tort convention one week and two weeks later was coveting their possessions and several months later buying one expensive toy after another. This novel starts out slowly with our quasi-hero J Clay Carter, who is a Washington DC public defender, getting corraled into taking murder case of a young black male, Tequila Watson who inexplicably shot another y.b.m for no apparent reason. J. Clay Carter has been a P.D. for five years and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. This annoys the lovely Rebbecca, Clay's girlfriend of four years and her gruesome parents to no end. At one time Clay's star shone very bright as his father was a prominent DC litigator and the plan was for Clay to join him. That plan fell through when the father was about to be indicted for some offense and made a deal with an assistant Attorney General to give up the practice and leave the country. This obviously narrowed Clay's options so he become a low paid P.D. Back to Tequila Watson. As Clay looked into Tequila's case, it didn't make much sense because Tequila only had a passing acquaintance with the victim, didn't have a history of violence and he himself didn't know why he shot the victim. Tequila was on a two hour pass from an inner city drug rehab lockdown joint when the incident happened so he went their for the records and gets stonewalled. In the meantime Clay's romance hits the rocks and they break up. The next day at 5:30 in the morning Clay gets a call from a Max Pace, with an offer of a lucrative job but when he gets there Max has a different agenda. It seems he is a fireman, as in damage control, for a large drug conglomeration. It seems that this drug company was surreptitiously testing a new drug called Tarvan, which killed any addiction. Unfortunately it made killers out of five percent of the addicts. Max Pace proposed that Clay quit the Public Defenders office, take a couple of their more talented employees with him and open up his own office whereupon he was to enlist the families of these senseless random murders as clients and pay them each five million dollars for their releases.
Clay was to receive the gross figure of fifteen million. When this is complete, the mysterious Max sets Clay up for another windfall, a mammoth class action suit against another drug company. Clay jumps in and is soon joined by every major ambulance chaser in the country in a mega suit. Don't you just love it, the egomaniac sleazy lawyers in a battle to the death against the equally distasteful legal drug monopolies. As time progresses Clay's company needs to grows to accommodate the massive lawsuit, which means that they need more suits to cover the spiraling expenses. Of course Clay's accountant is worried but Clay constantly reminds him that "if you want to make it, you got to spend it". If you don't want to know the ending, stop right here Well Clay goes on to be recognized as a rising superstar lawyer while Rebecca gets married and Clay brings a gorgeous model, Ridley, to the wedding reception and then takes up with her. but things are just not right. Clay misses Rebecca terribly and the lawfirm has grown to fast and pretty soon the house of cards is falling apart. At Max's urging Clay takes on giant manufacturer Goffman(sounds like Johnson and Johnson), which turns out to be Clay's first big mistake. They're a tough nut to crack and the beginning of the end for Clay's law firm In the end Clay gets his girl back and like the protagonists in his other novels, gives up law and rides off into the sunset, which is kind of what the author John Grisham has done. Oh, and moral number two is, "Money isn't everything", although the author is fabulously rich.
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