The King of Torts (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

The book presents the often repeated and much used story-line "Lawyers are greedy, bottom-feeding sharks and generally a menace to society" - so there is nothing new here. Nevertheless, the story is interesting and the book in many parts proved to be a real page-turner.

The story centers around a bright young public defender, Clay Carter, who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and therefore reluctantly ends up defending a young man charged with murder. Carter, who is overworked and underpaid, and to a certain extent scarred by his father's premature 'retirement' from the legal profession is fed up with his current job. His relationship with his long-term girlfriend (and her obnoxious parents) is also suffering and he is therefore easy prey for the mysterious Mr. Pace, who approaches him with a deal too good to turn down - a deal that could make him the new King of Torts.

Driven by his desire to succeed and the promise of massive cash rewards Carter soon finds himself attacking 'corporate evil' i.e. one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, who knowingly has launched a faulty drug into the market.

Although Carter does not know it yet he will soon realize that he is in way over his head and that only a very thin line separates 'The King of Torts' from 'The King of Shorts'....

At times some parts were far fetched but overall I believe Grisham in 'The King of Torts' has found the balance of being descriptive without being too wordy and thorough without becoming boring.

This book is vintage Grisham - a good and suspenseful read that kept me interested the whole way and I would therefore recommend it to anyone interested in this genre.

Things changed when Max Pace entered the picture. Max became Clay's source to getting several cases against pharmaceutical companies. Clay's settlements would change his life. Then he stumbled upon a conspiracy too horrible to believe!

**** While reading this book I kept being reminded of John Grisham's last novel. I now believe it was foreshadowing this book. There is nothing shocking to the reader here or any unexpected twists. Any reader with a lick of sense will easily be able to predict what is going to happen in the main character's near and distant future. However, the story is still pure joy to read and written in a way that only John Grisham can do. Recommended reading! ****

Grishams books are hard to fault due to his extensive research and brilliant writing style, he manages to twist and turn the plot without throwing the reader off, but this excellent writing style was completely lacking in the second half of the book.

Whilst I appreciate this is not supposed to be a 'thriller' (unlike most of his efforts) I found the book suddenly lost pace and became predictable after such a good start, it seemed like Mr Grisham had lost interest in the excellent tale he'd set out to tell and instead just switched off.

Rent this book from a library if you're a Grisham fan, it's not even worth the discounted price unfortunately...