The King of Torts

Product Information

Ever seen those ads on TV where the actor playing the lawyer looks at you straight in the eye and appeals to you," If you or a loved one, has taken this medication...etc. etc., call toll free, you may be entitled to some money…?"

Clay tries his best to help his client, plunging into the most dangerous parts of the Washington D.C. slums in search of evidence which may help his case.John Grisham's The King of Torts, a fast-paced, edgy legal thriller with surprises and twists along the way, answers these and other questions as we follow the rise and fall of one lawyer who gives in to temptation. Patton French appeared briefly in Grisham’s novel The Summons(2002). As a fictional character, he serves to voice the philosophy of greed and materialism. The character Dale Mooneyham, an old-fashioned, Clarence Darrow type of lawyer, seems to have been created for the express purpose of stating the thesis of Grisham’s novel. In an interview with Clay, Mooneyham, who believes in handling only one client at a time, says:

Desperate for money, Clay turns to a mass tort against Hanna, a building supplies company which had produced batches of defective cement. The company's directors are willing to offer a fair compensation to disgruntled homeowners, but only if Clay agrees to cut his share of the compensations. Clay refuses to give up anything, resulting in Hanna's bankruptcy, the loss of thousands of jobs, and an economic disaster for the town where the company is based. When it becomes known that the collapse was caused by "a greedy lawyer," Clay is ambushed and beaten by some men from the town. This is one of those books I can't stop thinking about! I read it for a business law class I'm taking and it is great! He agrees to never disclose why exactly his client went berserk and killed a man, and in return a mysterious man named Max promises him a whole new career with an opportunity at doing settlements for millions. 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.Grisham continues to impress with his daring, venturing out of legal thrillers entirely for A Painted House Masterful - when Grisham gets in the courtroom he lets rip, drawing scenes so real they're not just alive, they're pulsating' - Mirror

But after reading The Street Lawyer and now the King of Torts, I had a hard time giving another of his books much thought. Unfortunately, in a bargain, I had bought many of his books and now I'm going to try and finish the lot (to get my money's worth). I actually preferred this novel to The Street Lawyer which I also read recently. I didn't like the way that Grisham had focused on charity/benevolent work amongst the homeless almost as a selfish pursuit for the young lawyer to find himself. This novel, however, was different--it is totally secular with no real mention of faith/God or anything similar. Sometimes it is better not to try and mix the spiritual with the secular unless you are going to be accurate and ensure you represent the right principles.Do the regular average Joes actually get their money? Yes, but the lawyer is the one who profits. The fine small print at the bottom of the forms says that the lawyer gets a third of your settlement. And a third from the other thousands of clients.