The King of Torts

Rating:
Summary: Terrible, boring, don't waste your time!
Review: I have read many of John Grisham's novels and they all have two things in common: very weak character development and the fact the ending is always the same [to escape to a far away land!]. This novel is no different. It is a rather simplistic story of a young guy who gets corrupted by money and then crashes. That's it, that's your story... This is no "thriller." There is no "hidden conspiracy" [what the back of the book suggests]. There is no "suspense." There is also no real depth to any of the characters, or the story itself. It's all very typical Grisham simplistic stuff. Don't waste your time with Grisham. If you want a courtroom thriller read Reed's The Choice, Steve Martini's Compelling Evidence, or Irving's Trial. If you want to read a good author at creating suspense read Michael Crichton.

Rating:
Summary: a waste of effort
Review: What is good about the book: the information it gives on all the players involved in mass tort legislation -- defendants, litigants, and the attorneys. If Grisham's goal was to reduce the likelihood of people signing on with frivolous mass torts, he convinced me; I have received solicitations to join in on three different mas torts in the past few months, and now refuse to do anything to help those attorneys and their ilk make a fortune while making a mountain out of a molehill.

However, I think Aesop's story of greed was more effective, succinct, and interesting. As far as entertainment goes, this book is a loser. I kept waiting for the plot to thicken, and it never happened. I think Grisham is riding on his own coattails.

Rating:
Summary: The rise and fall of a lawyer
Review: I am a big fan of JG, and I was eagerly waiting for his latest addition to the collection.
The story deals about an obscure lawyer, working for the public service in DC, who is suddenly approached by a mysterious man offering to cut a deal which will make him millionaire by the night. Oddly, but not enough with his scruples, he agreeds to it and suddenly becomes the new "wunderkind" of Class action attorneys, getting the attraction of colleagues and the envy of many others.
Not to spoil the whole story, the plot (superbly narrated as usual) goes around the rise to the pinnacle of this young guy and his abrupt and profound fall, leaving you with a moral precept.

Rating:
Summary: Grisham novel found in the John
Review: Sorry John. I must say that I shall not pick up another of your novels after having labored through this one for three days. With every turned page, I felt as though I myself were being gaveled by some judge who condemns people for reading such mindlessless. Maybe the idea was to force your readers to experience, first-hand, emotions like frustration and disappointment, the same ones often suffered by the helpless victims represented by tort lawyers in class-action law suits. In that regard, you have succeeded.

It may very well be that Mr. Grisham has finally lost interest in producing quality work. He has, after all, had a nice run at it. Of course, the author's early legal thrillers are quite compelling page-turners of the variety that we as readers hate to see come to an end. To the contrary, this tale of greed and revenge is painfully predictable and, worse, follows its alleged climax with a drab denouement.

I live in Shanghai, China. Last week, I visited Beijing for a week and stayed in a hostel. Like many such establishments, the lounge area had a small book exchange. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to whoever ends up with this novel. Additionally, I would like to say that the book I received in return, the Scott Turow classic, Presumed Innocent, could teach Old Grisham a thing or two about, first of all, high-quality legal fiction writing and, second, the art of suspense.

Rating:
Summary: Fun to read
Review: It'd been awhile since I've read a Grisham novel and someone suggested that this one was fun to read. I did enjoy it. There's sleazy lawyers and back room deals, women and money and expensive jets. Basically Grisham pokes fun at lawyers and sort of spoofs some of the stuff that goes on in the world of law, specifically mass torts and class action.

I realize that some of his works are not nearly as good as the first novel he produced, 'A Time to Kill', which really is a more serious novel than many of his others, but none the less, this one is fun to read, just don't expect serious literature and you'll probably not be disappointed. If you want a strong plot with meaningful characters and realistic situations and no fantasy, go elsewhere, but otherwise, it's an enjoyable read if you like the genre.

Rating:
Summary: Mass torts, mass money
Review: Grisham takes on mass tort litigation in this latest legal thriller. Although "litigation" is part of the term, there was no litigation involved in this book. In fact, the most I've seen is amongst the various reviewers here.
Grisham's latest protagonist, Clay Carter, is a lawyer slaving away in the public defender's office. While he lacked the cynicism a position like this should inspire, he is tired and somewhat frustrated. Doing the right thing doesn't seem to be very rewarding when even your fiancee looks at you as though you are letting somebody down with your lack of career aspirations. As his personal life collapses, a career opportunity drops into his lap. He can make a lot of money; all he has to do is throw out a few people nobody cares about anyways and maybe he'll be able to win back the heart of his true love. A couple of lucky breaks, both incredibly illegal, and next thing you know Clay is the "king of torts"--the best at playing a game that only lawyers can win. The plaintiffs are losers, as well as the large corporations that wind up financing the whole mess. I found the inticracies of the tort system to be interesting, although the cases themselves seemed a bit unbelievable. I am not a lawyer, but could easily make some arguments that could defeat Clay's legal maneuvering. But apparently for these companies, it's easier to just fork out some cash than fix the problems you have created. Is this stuff really true? Does this really happen? Probably, but lets hope in a more intelligent manner than in this book.
The characters seem a bit stereotypical and as I was reading it, I fully expected some surprises. Maybe one of Clay's fiancee's parents would turn out to not be such a snob. Maybe Clay would ingratiate himself in the mass tort community and cause it's collapse. Perhaps his fiancee would help him see the error of his ways, they would win a huge settlement for some horribly disfigured victims of a poorly tested pharmaceutical, give all their money to charity and devote their lives to providing for the disadvantaged. NOT. Everybody in this book is exactly what they seem to be. Weak, spineless, completely lacking in ethics, any sort of moral compass, and conscience.
While the characters become somewhat tiresome, the ins and outs of this legal game are interesting. Grisham has taken on a segment of the legal world usually limited to bad jokes. It's interesting to see what money does to someone who has never had it.
Characters: weak, don't fulfill their potential.
Plot: interesting, enough to hold your attention until the end.
Ending: No surprises, a bit routine.
Overall: An interesting, mildly entertaining read, suitable for airport reading, or a long car ride. Won't keep you up at night, but will hold you enough to want to see what's going to happen next.
If you like a book with a little tension, read it!

Rating:
Summary: Agree w/ Adam 18; Snooze
Review: Yeah, Adam, I noticed the Flagstaff temperature reference as well. Guess folks figure its in Arizona, it must be hot. Note To Grisham: Its in the mountains. Its cool. I realize its a small point but its representative of the sloppy way the book was put together. Plot is tired. Characters are not developed. Lawyers and corporations are caracatures. And for the folks that are thankful about the education about the tort system, you might want to look elsewhere for the truth. Here is just one thing. These cases that Clay has are not class actions. They may be mass tort cases, but they are not class actions. In class action litigation, the plaintiff's lawyer does not go out and recruit individual clients and race to sign them up. You sue on behalf of one person and others, not named in the lawsuit, who are similarly situated. The class is as big as the number of people who respond to public notices. One other thing. Grisham breezily dismisses the rights of the murderer client. Maybe someone who is drugged to undo addiction with a drug that causes the user involuntarily to kill people might have a good defense, as Clay's lawyer realizes in the waning moments of the book. If Clay had realized this at the beginning then we wouldn't have had much of a story I guess.

Rating:
Summary: Typically Grisham, I was Up all Night
Review: This book is the story of Clay Carter, a thirty-one-year-old D.C. public defender who lives a simple life but wants so much more. He's been assigned to defend a murderer who was on a drug that was supposed to help him quit his addiction, but instead it turned him, and a few other that took the drug, into a mindless killer.

With the help of a shadowy benefactor named Max Pace, Clay quits his job, bails on his client, joins the other side and in no time at all he becomes a multimillionaire tort litigator, one of the legal vultures who get rich skimming millions off the settlements they orchestrate between wealthy manufacturers and the countless masses they have wronged.

Grisham uses Clay's rise to the top and fall to the bottom again to illustrate the greed that permeates the world of tort lawyers, but he delivers his message in a book that you won't be able to put down. There is a bit of Clay Carter in all of us, we don't want to admit it, but it's true, read this book and you'll know it too.

Rating:
Summary: From a Pauper to a King and Back Again
Review: Clay Carter is a bottom feeder in the legal world. He's wasting away in the Washington, D.C., public defender's office, representing drug dealers, drug addicts and even sometimes drug-addled killers. His girlfriend's father lines up a terrific job on a congressional staff for him, but he's too proud to take it and all of a sudden his girl is too proud to take him. He's been assigned a hopeless murder case that leaves him nothing to look forward to but hard work and failure.

Then along comes Max Pace, a mysterious stranger who appears ready to solve all Clay's problems. He tells Clay that his new client, Tequila Watson, is one of several junkies who was treated with a new drug that was supposed to help them kick their habits. Instead, it turned a small amount of them into mindless killers. Pace offers Clay sort of a legal deal with the devil, quit his job and represent the families of the victims and Pace and his employer - the company that manufactured the drug in question - will see to it that Clay's cut of the tort settlements will make him rich, while still saving the pharmaceutical company millions. Plus, Max says, there will be more to come.

True to his word, after Clay does what Max wants, he has another terrific offer for Clay. Another drug company - a competitor of the one Max represents - has put a drug on the market that unexpectedly causes bladder tumors, a small percentage of which are malignant. This time Clay puts together tort action on behalf of thousands of victims and walks away wealthy and heralded as the new "King of Torts."

Max comes around with still another case and Clay - who one would think would be happy with his new car, jet, townhouse, trophy girlfriend and millions in the bank - would pass and enjoy his life. However Clay has been bitten by the Tort bug, by the grandeur and the glory, but alas, this time he has bitten off more than he can chew. We knew the fall had to come, because Grisham always puts things right in the end, but it's how Clay handles the rise and fall that makes this such a compelling story and my opinion THE KING OF TORTS is Grisham at his best.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Rating:
Summary: A Deal with the Devil is Never What it's Cracked Up to Be
Review: Clay Carter is thirty-one, has a girl friend he cares about and works for the Office of the Public Defender in Washington DC. Nobody gets rich working for the OPD, but Clay tells himself it's work that must be done and he gives his clients his best effort. He's just finished a long murder case and is sort of suckered into another as he is the only OPD attorney in court at the wrong time and the judge assigns him the Tequila Watson case. Tequila, it seems, walked out of a rehab center on a short pass, got a gun and shot a small time dealer named Pumpkin to death for no apparent reason.

On top of having to do another thankless murder case, his girl's sleazy, developer father has lined up a job with a congressman for Clay that pays more that twice what he's getting at OPD. Clay, who wants to be his own man, rejects the offer and his girl rejects him.

Enter Max Pace, a mysterious stranger who claims to be a lawyer for an unnamed pharmaceutical company, but who looks like he spends all his time in the gym. Pace tells Clay that his client has been testing a new drug that is supposed to help cure addiction, but that a new side affect has been discovered. It turns a very small amount of users into killers. Tequila had been on the drug. Max wants Clay to pay off the victim's relatives without giving up the company's name. He offers Clay a gang of money and promises bigger things to come.

Clay quits the OPD and does what Max asks and Max keeps his promise by clueing Clay into a rival company's bad drug, one that causes bladder tumors in some of the users. Max steers Clay into the world of Mass Tort litigation. Clay's cut of the settlements makes him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Of course what he's doing is highly unethical, maybe illegal, but he's got a new townhouse, a new car, a corporate jet, a flashy new girlfriend who is spending his money like crazy and eventually the FBI breathing down his neck.

This is a wonderful "Man who sold his soul to the Devil" story and as usual John Grisham has breathed real life into characters we care about. We know from the beginning that Clay's rapid rise to the top is going to eventually wind up with a fall just as rapid, we wait for it, but what we don't know is how Clay will handle the failure and that is what makes the story work, what makes it special. But heck, it's gotta be special, John Grisham wrote it.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne