The King of Torts

source : Amazon.com
author : John Grisham

Grisham continues to impress with his daring, venturing out of legal thrillers entirely for A Painted House and Skipping Christmas (the re-release of which this past fall was itself a bold move) and, within the genre, working major variations. Here's his most unusual legal thriller yet--a story whose hero and villain are the same, a young man with the tragic flaw of greed; a story whose
suspense arises not from physical threat but moral turmoil, and one that launches a devastating assault on a group of the author's colleagues within the law. Mass tort lawyers are Grisham's target, the men (they're all men here, at least) who win billion-dollar class-action settlements from corporations selling bad products, then rake fantastic fees off the top, with far smaller payouts going to the people harmed by the products. Clay Carter is a burning-out lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender (OPD) in Washington, D.C., when he catches the case of a teen who, for no apparent reason, has gunned down an acquaintance. Clay is approached by a mysterious stranger, the enigmatic Max Pace, who says he represents a megacorporation whose bad drug caused the teen--and others--to kill. The corporation will pay Clay $10 million to settle with all the murder victims at $5 million per, if all is accomplished on the hush-hush; that way, the corporation avoids trial and possibly much higher jury awards. After briefly examining his conscience, Clay bites. He quits the OPD, sets up his own firm and settles the cases. In reward, Pace gives him a present--a mass tort case based on stolen evidence but worth tens of millions in fees. Clay lunges again, eventually winning over a hundred million in fees. He is crowned by the press the new King of Torts, with enough money to hobnob with the other, venal-hearted tort royalty, to buy a Porsche, a Georgetown townhouse and a private jet, but not enough to forget his heartache over the woman he loves, who dumped him as a loser right before his career took off. Clay's financial/legal hubris knows few bounds, and soon he's overextended, his future hanging on the results of one product liability trial. The tension is considerable throughout, and readers will like the gentle ending, but Grisham's aim here clearly is to educate as he entertains. He can be didactic (" `Nobody earns ten million dollars in six months, Clay,' " a friend warns. " `You might win it, steal it, or have it drop out of the sky, but nobody earns money like that. It's ridiculous and obscene' "), but readers will applaud Grisham's fierce moral stance (while perhaps wondering what sort of advance he got for this book) as they cling to his words every step along the way of this powerful and gripping morality tale. -- Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reader's review:
John Grisham began his writing career with a bang, publishing one great legal thriller after the next, a feat that brought him to the top of the publishing world very quickly. But in the last few years, his legal thrillers have been less than steller. Aside from his sweet, heartwarming A Painted House (which, ironically enough, was not a legal thriller), Grisham's novels have been on the boring side. Now, he returns with his yearly offering, a fun little novel called The King of Torts, a novel that brings him once step closer to regaining his title of King of the legal thriller.

In the book, we find a young public defendent named Clay, who is given the opportunity to earn 15 million dollars with just a few months's work. Soon enough, he is thrown into the world of mass litigation, where lawyers sue big corportations with thousands of claims. The millions start pouring in and Clay soon finds himself at the top of his game.

But what goes up must come down, a thing Clay does not seem to know. Halfway through the story, Clay realizes that he's in way over his head.

In Clay, Grisham creates a character you will both love and hate. His rise to success his fun to watch, but his downfall is much more interesting. It's the part in between that's problematic. Because, while Clay is on top, he becomes so obssessed with money and fame that he becomes a character you will despise. It's hard to like someone who's complaining about life when they own a yacht, a million dollar house, a penthouse in the south, and their own 45$ million jet. So when his downfall arrives, it's hard to feel sympathy for Clay.

The story is predictable, yet fun to read. Maybe the book would have been better had Clay been faced with harder, more problematic challenges and situations. As it is now, The King of Torts is a fund read that doesn't require much involvement from its readers. A good beach novel, but not much more than that. -- Sebastein Pharand

Fans of John Grisham's earlier legal works should be pleased with this thriller set in the complex, greedy world of tort lawyers. You can't help but like and hate the main character, lawyer J. Clay Carter II as he changes from a low paid but dedicated attorney in the D.C. Public Defender's office to a high powered, freewheeling and greedy corporate lawyer. When the chance to cash in on 6 settlements for a new drug gone wrong lands in Carter's lap, he is lured into the jet-setting life of other wealthy attorneys looking for quick settlements. Even though you may not approve of their motives, the tort world is fascinating and a great story. As Carter buys into the lifestyle with a personal jet and home in the Carribbean yet seems unconcerned about settlements for his clients, you want to shake him. But those who rise quickly can fall the same way and the novel ends in a satisfying way.
Lots of subplots, interesting characters and fast paced action keeps you on pins and needles until the end of the story. I think this is a four star book, not quite at the level of his earlier works (The Firm and Pelican Brief) , but a huge improvement over later works such as The Summons and The Brethren. -- marry1anne2

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