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My impression of this book is that of an author trying to fullfill the requirements of a publishing contract. The characters are one dimensional and not worthy of care.
He's a corporate insider who buy and spits out companies like licorice.Wes and Mary Grace have been working the case for years, taking on everything Trudeau throws at them. Mary Grace and Tom Payton are a husband and wife legal team and for years they've been representing a woman in Bowmore, Mississippi who lost both her husband and child to cancer which was supposedly caused by Krane Chemical's deliberate chemical spills into the town's water supply. They've gone the extra mile for the cause, they've had to let other clients go, they've sold their house, they lives have become this case. The cancer rate in Bowmore is fifteen times the national average, everyone in town drinks bottled water, even the public pool has been closed.On the face of it one would think the case was open and shut and that Krane Chemical should settle and be down with it, but the chemical company is a subsidiary of a conglomerate which is run by Carl Trudeau and he's just not the settling kind. There is nothing nice, good or even remotely likable about Trudeau. They believe in their client, in what they're doing, but when they win, Trudeau's attorneys are not worried, because they believe they'll win on Appeal.Trudeau will stop at nothing, the Payton's are determined and there you have the setup for this might versus right, good versus evil story that will keep you glued to your chair, eyes pinned to the pages, heart pounding as you pour through this story. Nobody does suspense and intrigue the way John Grisham does.
Because they oppose the judicial system becoming radicalized by special interest groups without regard to the Constitution or the people. Unfortunately he seems to be slipping in his creativity in order to advance his political persuasion. After reading nearly all of Grisham's books (on unabridged audio) it seems obvious that he not only sides with the left liberal political ideology, but he ever so cleverly weaves it into many of his novels. Using his novel as a bully pulpit, Grisham seems to have lost face of the fact that in his tirade against Christians politicizing the judicial system, it is only a reaction to what is all so ready apparent. I was struck by his apparent naivety and especially his misrepresentation of serious minded Christians voicing their concerns as power mad, money grubby, inconsiderate, illiterate, illogical, anti-environmentalists, uncompassionate at best and devious in all actuality. Why. Harry Jackson Jr. and Tony Perkins state, "The church is not called to be a mouth piece for a political party, rather it is to be moral voice to the nation."
Based on the new Supreme Court decision that corporations can supply unlimited amounts of money to politicians.this book of fiction has now become non-fiction. What wonderful insight from John Grisham. It's really frightening.
The novel offers what may normally be expected from a successful work in this genre, a good plot. WHEN A YOUNG WIDOW wins a multi-million dollar jury verdict, she is only halfway there. She and the small, strapped and stretched law firm representing her must also win the appeal against a corporation, its law firm, and a team of shadowy figures and forces working against them.It is true that the emphasis of this book is not on character development, but the characters are certainly not (all) underdeveloped. The work been criticized for not ending in a pow, but had it so ended, Grisham would then have been criticized for being predictable; a no-win situation for him in this respect.Grisham shows that he indeed knows his stuff in terms of how the world works, especially in the realms of church (liberal and conservative), finance, and, of course, law. Writers will also pick up quite a bit about the mechanics of telling a story, including how to create and assemble multiple elements while pushing a plot along.
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