I don't think I'll ever read Grisham again, his stories are just too stupid. The protagonist inexplicably acted like an ass despite professing to being a moral person, acted wildly irrationally, made unbelievable errors in judgement concerning the wasting of money and lack of caution. His character was so poorly developed that I knew mid way through that I didn't give a shit what happened to him, because his character was both unbelievable and ultimately not likeable. Most problematic though were what felt like serious inconsistencies in his behaviour, it just never felt like he had a real personality. It wasn't like a good person was being corrupted by money, rather it felt like the author didn't know who the character was, the consequence of which was me often thinking 'why the fuck would a real person do that?'. The entire ride, in particular the relationship aspect of the story, was beyond belief.
Still gets two stars for being a page turner, and Grisham's writing is tidy and very approachable.

At the time, I had a bookclub consisting of friends who would choose the book for a month, and that month host dinner at their house. Someone chose this book and I forced myself through it; I was quite dismayed that at the time it was only available in hardcover to boot, so I had to shell out real $$ for it. This book is terrible! The author uses juvenile wording, writing lifted from old gumshoe detective novels (such as, legs as long as...legs all the way up to her...) Also, he quite often changes point of view without warning, not only on the page but often in a single paragraph. I think this author should have stopped at the FIRM. This book reeks of the publisher saying "Hurry up and finish, the deadline is looming." The ending was awful. He is on a private plane with the long-legged woman, they are jetting off, and she is opening the fold-out bed on board.
Definitely not a book for women, who are portrayed here as completely one dimensional.

So I slogged through this book out of courtesy to my hostess, and when I arrived at her home for the monthly dinner/book discussion, it turned out that I was the only person there who had finished the book.

I really don't know what I expected from this book: amazing action scenes, crazy unexpected twists, and a heart wrenching story with a great lesson. I got none of that. What I got was 400 pages of legal terms and a money crazed, horny lawyer. It was humorous at some points and the story really pulled me in to read more, but most of the time I was begging for the book to end. I really believe Grisham could have done better. I've heard so much hype about his books that I was glad that I finally got into one of his books. When I started reading it, I remembered why I didn't want to read his books. Clay was a good character and I believe that his character could have grown to be more and achieve more. To me Grisham cut Clay off at his knees and made him a steortypical money crazed lawyer. In the beginning his character was so intelligent with high hoped. By page 300 I could do nothing but pity him. The ending was not very fulfilling. Mostly it was cowardly. I felt like there should have been some sort of justice somewhere. And what of Max Pace? No I was not happy with this book. I would love to give up on Grisham at this point, but I hae been advised that some of his other works are truly worth reading. This book however is not. This book just wasn't for me. It could have turned me on to an entire new world of literature, but in the end it failed me miserably. Maybe next time Grisham.....or not.

Very enjoyable-if predictable,in parts-Grisham has a winning formula which certainly works for me!

All in all, this book just didn't push my buttons, although I will admit it is well written enough. My problem was quite simply that I didn't care. I didn't care about our hotshot King of Torts, I found the entire concept of the torts to be vaguely unpleasant and the surrounding cast of characters weak. The tort lawyers are greedy, selfish, wasteful and arrogant. The group that comes along with Clay to his new 'business' are cardboard cut outs and the two women are damn awful.

But at the heart of my issues with this book was the fact that I simply had no interest in the topic and Grisham fails to instill that interest in me. Had the focus stayed on Tequila Watson and a fight for justice by the underdog whilst the tort lawyers try to make some cash as the playground bullies, that might well have truly hooked me. But poor Tequila is left to rot in jail whilst his lawyer squanders the £5 million quid he got from selling out. Lots of things about jet planes and insane bonuses to staff follows. The underdog angle would have worked better for me.

I always enjoy a good Grisham novel and this one was pretty good until the end. Not a bad read, but nothing like some of his earlier works.

eponymous sentence:
p179: There was his face, in on of those hideous sketches made famous by The Journal, and just above it was the headline THE KING OF TORTS, FROM $40,000 TO $100,000,000 IN SIX MONTHS.

space:
p125: The phone was answered on the other end by a woman, perhaps Mrs. Ted Worley of Upper Marlboro,Maryland.

dash:
p314: He spent three hours waiting in X Ray, three hours on a gurney in a busy hall where nurses and orderlies rushed by chatting about nothing.

This was not memorable the first time and I didn't expect it to be, but perceptions can change. And it did for this book.

This time I have come to appreciate the subject matter and was genuinely interested, especially with that reform bit. I can't tell if it was because I've learned a few things in between readings or if it was just my state mind, but it's likely the latter.

The ending of this book really disappointed me. For being about mass tort litigation, it did a good job of keeping me interested and I read it quickly, but the ending was so unsatisfactory.

SPOILER ALERT (if you care about those)

After he had built himself up so much doing shady things, it started to crumble. When he started to fall, I really wanted to see him fall. I wanted him to have to deal with it. I wanted to see him fall hard because I felt that's what he deserved. But he didn't. He got the girl and he rode off into the sunset ... or flew off, I guess.

It was an interesting study of character, to see what money does to a person, but I wanted to see what the loss of the money and power does to him, and I didn't get that.

(2.5 stars)

This thriller started a bit slow, and the MC Clay Carter becomes less likable for every chapter. Character growth is an important thing for me, and in this case it just happened to be towards a less likable man who abandons all his ideals, but at least I did not feel bad when everything came crashing down around him.  The storyline was quite predictable, and the ending felt a bit abrupt, especially considering the first half felt very slow going, but I still enjoyed the book.

Really good book. I enjoy John Grisham's writing.

I’ve never knew much about law cases, but John Grisham made me feel as if I was a lawyer in Washington, D.C. myself. Clay Carter, a lawyer for the firm OPD, is a man struggling to make money at the law firm he works at. “The beginning salary for an OPD lawyer was 36,000 dollars. The most senior lawyer, a frazzled of man of forty-three, earned 57,600 dollars and has been threatening to quit for nineteen years.” When given an unbelievable opportunity, the story tells about how he handles himself while being a mass tort lawyer.

When Clay is working at OPD and is struggling to get money, his rich girlfriend, Rebecca Vanhorn, decides that she needs somebody with more money. Rebecca grew up with rich parents who always gave her what she wanted. When her parents put inside her head that she deserves better than Clay, she leaves him.

The next day, a man named Max Pace calls Clay with a great opportunity. Max Pace is a man with many names. Max is the only name mentioned in the book. He calls Clay about the murder case he is handling and Clay’s client, Tequila Watson.

Tequila is a nineteen-year-old boy who is in jail for murder. He is a kid that was on drugs, but had no other problems. In fact, the rehabilitation center director says, “But the kid was pretty tame, no history of violence.”

Max tells Clay that the prescription drug that Tequila was taking, Tarvan, has a defect. It makes one percent of the people who take it want to kill somebody. Max says that his client, the drug company that manufactured Tarvan, has destroyed all records and wants to settle quickly. Max hires Clay to find all the victims’ families, and make them his clients. Then Max’s clients would settle for any amount of money.

Clay becomes rich over the Tarvan case and makes his own law firm. Max becomes his partner. Max has stolen records on a pill named Dyloft. Dyloft is a prescription drug used for arthritis, but it makes tumors in the bladder. Clay files for suit against the manufacturer of the pill, Ackerman Labs, immediately and has thousands of clients calling him.

One theme of the book would be that no matter how rich you are, you should not let money go to your head. Clay makes millions of dollars and is always telling himself to not let the money go to his head. He ends up believing you have to spend money to make money.

I liked this book because it is so much like real life. He makes commercials that are just like some of the ones we see on television at night. It is also very interesting about how much the pharmaceutical companies are willing to pay to keep a case from going to court, and how much the lawyers keep for themselves. This book shows greed and how it gets the best of people.

One thing I did not like about this book was that at times, it would get boring. It was boring because of all the details that had to be given about the cases and all the stuff the lawyers had to do to prepare for them. Once they filed for suit is when the book started getting interesting again.

Page Count: 470

Genre: Realistic Fiction

I enjoyed the plot of the book, however the sexist and racist tones put me off. Could’ve easily been a 4 ⭐️ rating otherwise.

Always quit while you’re ahead.