Rating: 
Summary: Great Reads
Review: Once again John Grisham has proved what a master storyteller he is, and as always he knows his subject. If you enjoy Grisham's writing, try reading a new author on the scene, Glynnis Hayward. Her first novel, A TELLING TIME, shows Grisham-like suspense as a gripping court case evolves with accompanying intrigue.
Rating: 
Summary: John Help !!!
Review: John, someone bastardized your ideas from this great book and made a movie. They're trying to shove the "ban all guns" issue with it... propaganda on a grand scale ... in true Hitler and Stalin fashion - heavy on the propaganda and very weak in the logic. It's incredible but true!
Rating:
Summary: sell-out
Review: Great book. Unfortunately, Grisham sold out with the movie and allowed the producers to take a swipe at the firearm industry. When will people learn, "Guns don't kill people- People kill people."
Rating:
Summary: The Importance of Jury Selection
Review: This very interesting story is about a widow who sues a tobacco company for the death of her smoking husband. The legal team defending the cigarette manufacturer hasn't lost any previous suits. They use a company that investigates jurors in depth, watches them closely, and advises the lawyers. Both sides do this, but not to the same extent. There was talk about illegal means, but nobody was ever caught. This book gives a lot of background information on the Judicial System that you won't see in newspapers or television.A young woman sends inside information to the man in charge of jury investigation for the tobacco company. [One tip-off to an undercover agent like Easter is his prior experience and attempts to gain leadership.] The testimony tells of the carcinogens and other compounds in tobacco smoke. Nicotine is a poison that raises blood pressure, increases the pulse rate, and is addictive. [Comparable to other human activity?] Chapters Nine and Twelve tell how a juror can be influenced by corporate powers. Easter tells the jury he was followed, and suggests the others were (to create fear and hatred?). Chapter 15 explains the Big Money paid into political lobbying to restrict insurance company awards in damage suits. [Is this happening in your state?] Page 140 tells how insurance companies control physicians. A retired company executive testified about the need for nicotine because of its addictive qualities (p.155). Cigarettes are promoted in advertising (to create "peer pressure"), but when a smoker dies from lung cancer the tobacco company blames the victim! Chapter 18 tells how new developments are carefully considered by county supervisors. This story about the real estate salesman sounds like it came from the "Mission Impossible" television series. Chapter 29 tells how one juror is bounced for reading newspapers and magazines (did they check for fingerprints?) [Another tip-off to an agent is his skill in provoking trouble for others.] This clever story had an ending that surprised me. The plaintiff wins, and is awarded $400 Million! The jury doesn't worry about giving away somebody else's money in punitive damages; there are no rational decisions here, just emotion and whimsy. Is this a loophole in the system? Why should one get so much and the other Four Hundred Thousand get nothing? This book shows a den of thieves. People are honest until they are tempted. This reminds me of "The Sting", whose moral was that swindles are OK if the sucker is worse than you. [Is this Real Life?] This book delivers an anti-smoking message without preaching. But how many will quit after reading it? The use of nicotine gum or patch should allow many to quit, if they so choose. Smoking, like other conditioned reflexes, is hard to break. The characters of Nicholas and Marlee are not credible to me. [I expected to find them as part of a Government sting operation to catch the "jury consultants".]
Rating: 
Summary: Is Grisham still writing his own books?
Review: You can count on Grisham to be entertaining and a quick read, which this was for the most part. Beyond that, he must consider his readers as moronic as the people on "The Runaway Jury" to find any credibility in this story. It was better than sappy Bleachers or Skipping Christmas but my respect for Grisham's writing has taken a dive. He's always going to the edge of what can be believed and his characters tend to be stereotypes, but Grisham has lost respect for his readers to put out something like this. I've read everything he's written and this is my last.
Rating: 
Summary: Standard Legal Thriller
Review: Those who have read other novels by John Grisham will find nothing either new or shocking in the pages of The Runaway Jury. In this effort, as with many of his other works, Grisham explores both the justices and injustices inherent in the American legal system, as told with the knowing, insider's perspective of having been a trial lawyer himself. Revolving around a fictional, yet all-too-familliar civil liability trial pitting a cancer victim's family against the tobacco industry, the first half of the book is a slow-paced examination of the pitfalls of the jury selection procedure. The pace doesn't really pick up until the second half of the book when the primary characters' true intentions -- to sell the jury's verdict to the highest bidder -- are revealed. Although Grisham avoids painting his subjects in black and white stereotypes -- and generally shys away from bland sermonizing about the evils of "big tobacco" -- the net result is that no character in the book comes across as being perfect. Indeed, even the protagonists appear flawed at best; greedy at worst -- at least until their end result is achieved. Make no mistake, The Runaway Jury is a well-constructed, engaging page-turner, filled with believable characters and an interesting plot twist. Bear in mind though, that this is not enough to seriously challenge the avid reader -- as with many of Grisham's other novels, The Runaway Jury reads much like a literary sorbet; something to cleanse the palette between other, more substantial works. For the first-time Grisham reader, this will be enough to satisfy, but the veteran Grisham reader will have seen this before.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book except that
Review: It starts off long but as it gets twords the middle it becomes a drawn out into details that keep you reading for hours after you were meant to stop.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: This book has an all right plot line, but lacks ingenuity. Unlike many of Grisham's other books, I could tell what the ending would be when only two-thirds through. I also believe that (because of the setting) this book contains too many characters. Grisham reverts to using too many stereotypes in describing them. Just to mention some of the characters, there were: twelve jurors, a Judge, a courtroom staff, defense and plaintiff lawyers, and everyone's family/ love interests. I just couldn't keep them all straight. Besides those three points, I found the story very fun and a pretty easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Very good read
Review: As a first time reader of any John Grisham work, I must say that I was impressed, yet dissapointed; let me explain. This book was very easy to follow, the characters were developed well, I finished this book in three days (during the hustle and bustle of Christmas) because the plot building was so wonderful. One night during reading, I had to MAKE myself go to sleep after being so engrossed in the book, found that it was 3:30 in the morning! Get ready to drop everything and read! The only reason why I give this book four instead of five stars was that I believe that Mr. Grisham should have been a little more creative with the ending. While I was reading, my predictions of the ending were more creative than the actual ending, which is where my dissapointment lies. This book however, is well worth the time it takes to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not impressed. A little insulted.
Review: The first John Grisham book I read was The Partner. After reading that book I was hooked. This book, however, was slow and a little tedious. I just skimmed through several pages. His protayal of blacks and other's religious beliefs was offensive. This is the last John Grisham book I will read.
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