- Author: John Grisham
- Publication and all that: read at Amazon
Unethical corporation dumps carcinogen, people start dieing, and in legal battle the company is slapped a trillion (or some such ridiculous amount) dollar fine/ damages. The company appeals, and to ensure winning, arranges for election of a puppet judge. Grisham preaches. Company wins.
My reading of the book
Such a good start. First few pages are only about people getting to know that the jury has reached the verdict and still I felt glued to the book.
Up to the first half it was all very good- developing characters, good pace, some legal jargon to make you feel you are reading something good and all the usual thriller stuff. It came as a surprise to me that even the judges are elected not appointed in US. So getting to know all those
Then Grisham got preachy. It became tale of usual tricks that you see in movies and so many other novels that candidates use to win elections. And when the stooge for the corporation coaches his son's baseball team, at that very moment you know this kid is gonna get killed and the stooge is gonna repent later on. And then the husband-wife lawyer couple! I think only Dickens wrote more one dimensional characters.
By the end of the book I didn't care which party wins, I had already lost. Even such election stuff people can write in a way that may make you turn pages one after another without stopping, but not here. And then to give a 'surprise' the truth doesn't prevail in the end- the company wins and you are supposed to feel what the world has come to. But you don't, because you wanna sleep.
