Thursday, March 18, 2010

King of Torts by John Grisham


I'm done with my third book for my book reading challenge for this year. If in my first two books I opted to read classic novels, for my third book, it's a legal drama from John Grisham.

Oops...my blog is now turning into a book and movie review site because my past entries has been about movies and books. Oh well, nothing interesting has been happening lately and these books provide an escape from the boring routine of life.

"The King of Torts," is the story of Clay Carter a lawyer for the fictitious Office of the Public Defender and his rise to become the town's most popular King of Torts.

Clay Carter was a poorly paid lawyer who dreams of one day leaving his present job and joining a prestigious firm. His life changed when he handled the case of Tequila Watson who was charged with murder. He learned that a pharmaceutical company represented by a mysterious Max Pace is illegally using recovering addicts to take Tarvan, a drug suppressant without their knowledge. Tarvan works 90% for some clients while the rest in the case of Tequila Watson commits random acts of killing.

The drug company hired Clay Carter to work as a legal retainer for the drug company to pay off the victims killed by Tarvan users in large settlements with the instruction to quit his job and to never mention Tarvan to any one.

Clay soon discoverd through Max Pace that there is another dangerous drug that is out in the market and this knowledge made him start his career path toward Tort Law. He became a powerful tort lawyer and soon find himself conniving with other tort lawyers. His sudden rise to fame and access to million of dollars came with a price, he became a subject of investigation due to various unethical conduct including insider trading, he was sued by dissatisfied clients and he loss an important case against another drug company.

The story build-up is really good. I was hoping that he will side with Tequila Watson at the beginning of the novel and defend this murder suspect which in truth is a victim too by a greedy pharmaceutical company. But when he choose to side with the makers of Tarvan and started earning big and filing one tort case after another the novel became boring. It just became a story enumerating the cases he filed and the many luxurious items he bought with his millions. In the end, Clay chooses to redeem himself by exposing the truth about Tarvan and Max Pace.

With the many things going on in Clay's life the author ends the novel abruptly. Clay decided to leave the United States for London to pursue a simple life with his girlfriend Rebecca

3 comments:

jenn said...

the book sounds interesting. i have read a few of john grisham's novels, especially those that were made as movies. he's a good author. one of the best in this genre.

Anonymous said...

good luck on your reading challenge. i joined a 25 book in one year challenge and with a busy hectic life, I usually barely make it every year.

rohit said...

Must be an enjoyable read The King of Torts by John Grisham. loved the way you wrote it. I find your review very genuine and orignal, this book is going in by "to read" list.

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