Picture the office of the public defender, litigators stretched to the limit and beyond, exposed to circumstances they have no ability to deal with, day in and day out, underpaid, over worked and hopeless. This is Clay Carter's life. A new assignment, a young man charged with a random shooting. This client is an addict, though in successful recovery with no history of violence, in fact, just the opposite. Clay starts the discovery and the facts are not adding up as he probes into the case. Enter Max Pace, a representative of a corporation whose bad drug caused the defendant to kill, and it's not a random event. The corporation will pay Clay ten million dollars to settle with all the murdered victim's families, quietly, to avoid a trial and public exposure. Clay quits the public defender, sets up his own firm, settles the cases. As an incentive, Pace presents another case, huge money, and all the dirt needed to land tens of millions in lawyers fees. The path of Clay's life is altered forever, but is it sustainable? The nasty world of tort law. A good read, and I dare you to find one redeemable character in the lot, I didn't.

The book was long.

King of Torts, being a bestseller itself and coming from John Grisham gathered high expectations but to me, it was nothing but a disappointment. The story follows escapades of young John Clay Carter II-his meteoric rise and equally dramatic fall in the class action business(?). Full of tedious repetitions and full of terms that are still alien to me, it took me a while to get into the book. My interest, which it eventually lost after chapter 10, after which I was actually counting the pages. Sad.

The story lacked humor and was almost always predictable. The end was, most of all, a huge disappointment. It could've been more realistic. <spoiler> Sometimes happy endings just doesn't fit in.</spoiler>

This was my first John Grisham book and hopefully, not the last. Two and half stars for now.

Another interesting story by Grisham, about the corruption in legal practice and greedy lawyers taking advantage of clients. It almost felt like a Mobster film, where the main character starts out from beneath, slowly works his way up making it to the top, then in the end everything goes south and starts to crumble.


Clay Carter seems to be getting nowhere in life, a low-paid Public Defender in Washington DC. But one day, Clay is made an offer he can't refuse, after taking the case of a man charged with what is seemingly a random street killing. But as Clay digs deeper, he finds himself up against one of largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Clay decides to start a new chapter in his life, leaving the life of a Public Defender and working his way up, building his own Law Firm specializing in torts, and making more money a year than he could ever imagine.

An insightful story about greed and corruption, some of the legal jargon was a little overplayed, causing the story to drag at times, but other than that, an entertaining read!

The King of Torts is a really good suspense/legal novel. It got me hooked from the first pages and I couldn't leave it. I liked the storyline and I was so anxious to know what is going to happen to Clay, the main character in this book. After finishing it, the reader will see the whole picture and learn how much money and greed can destroy one's life. The moment you reach the top, don't assume that you can't come back down! Sometimes the fall can come quick and sudden in a way you can't even understand.

Even though I liked the book, I only give it 3 stars and that is due to the following reasons:
*The story was mostly suspenseful in the beginning compared to other parts.
* I felt the Taquila Watson character went unnoticed and I think it should be more into it. The same goes for the Van Horns family.
* Some characters were unnecessary like the Russian girlfriend.
* It got a bit boring and repetitive in some parts.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, it was different to the themes I used to read but I think it can be improved in some parts.

The King of Torts by John Grisham is a good read but falls short of the standard I have come to expect from his books. The book was very good at times and very tedious at other times. The character were well crafted and interesting but at times the legal jargon was overplayed.

This book had my interest for about 100 pages. What is attractive about obscene amounts of money? The characters are flat and Grisham portrays the women as objects.

The second reading showed the stereotype grisham uses to portray lawyers. It is not flattering and probably promulgates the negative view.

Not read a Grisham novel for some time but the time was right. I wasn’t disappointed. Classic Grisham legal tension - beautifully written, technical, polished and it’s easy to see why so many are now films.

King of Torts doesn’t let the side down; there’s the little guy, the big guys, the girl - or two, some loyal supporters, an opportunity and a twist or two through in for good measure.

Sometimes things seem too easy. Or do they?

It really took me a while to get into this book. It started out pretty slow, but it was interesting. I kept reading, and I'm pretty disappointed with the novel.

The novel follows a man named Clay Carter - a lawyer working for the Office of the Public Defender. His job is going no where, his girlfriend and her parents are after him to "make something of himself" which translates into "make our daughter rich." It seems like his life is going no where.

Then he meets Max Pace. The guy pops up out of no where and offers him a case that can make him $15 million. How can Clay say no? And thus, Clay Carter enters the world of Mass Torts.

The main character really didn't appeal to me. He was a guy who had a fortune handed to him, blew it all on stupid shit, made stupid decisions, and basically screwed himself, and yet still comes out unscathed.

Through out the novel, I kept finding myself wanting to smack Clay for the stupid things he does. I would've liked the novel more if it had focussed more on Tequila rather than a greedy man blowing money left and right.

This book left no impression on me whatsoever. What kind of a name is 'Clay' for a main character? This guy simply had no substance to him and he certainly did not deserve to be the hero in this book. Not that he was ever in danger of some other character stealing the lime light from him. Not a single person in this book was worth the trouble, not one.
Sure it shows us just how greedy lawyers can be but come on now, surely we don't have to read such a boring book to find this out. My die hard principle when it comes to books is to 'no matter what finish what i start reading'. So i had no choice but to read it to its insipid conclusion. I have read one other book by this author which i thought was only marginally better than this one.In my opinion the major problem with Mr. Grisham is that he concentrates on plots and does not do enough on the characters in his books. So while we may gain insight into how the law works we have to do it with the help of characters who sound like robots. I am not sure i want to read anything else by him after this.

I thought this book and "Street Lawyer" focused on a few similar scenarios: a washed up lawyer working for the poor; loser in the relationship part; greed in the legal world; and the resentment toward corporate lawyers. It seemed to me that the author's political view was all over Street Lawyer and for that, I didn't care for the book. However, this book actually made the Street Lawyer story look better in my opinion. At least in Street Lawyer, the author made the main character, a white lawyer, turn into a some kind of hero. In this book, I feel like there were a few good suspense laid out, but they were somehow lost and forgotten. (What happened to Max Price? What about Paul Watson?) To end this book entitled "The King of Torts" with a story of him getting away with his reunited girlfriend didn't satisfy me at all. I can see why Grisham fans left bad reviews....

Yeah, I'm a Grisham fan and this one kind of flew under the radar and I loved it! Loved the "little guy" approach that's made Grisham a fave (very reminescent of the Rainmaker) and it kept my attention from start to finish.

Not as good as I was expecting. Kept wanting something exciting to happen. Basically the rise and fall of a mass tort lawyer.