My first foray back into fiction and I finished it in two days. Great book! Thanks for the rec Shelby!

This book wasn't completely terrible, which is impressive considering the fact that the main character was a remarkably lively turd. I might've given it another star had Grisham not tacked on a feel good ending where his bigoted, greedy, arrogant horror show of entitled human detritus won the heart of the girl of his dreams and a fat stack of cash for ignoring the wrongful imprisonment of seven men of color, robbing countless victims of big pharma and bankrupting the economy of a small southern city.

Someone call my high school math teachers and let them knew I am using math they taught me, and to describe a book no less. f(thekingoftorts) = -x^2
yes, it is an inverted parabola in several ways. The main character's rise and fall are blatantly obvious. the romantic relationships also follow the same pattern. my hope that the novel would hold my interest followed the same curve. the writing quality, well, you get the point...
mix in Grisham's soapvoxing about what's wrong with lawyers and that's the entire book.

Did.Not.Like.It.

Don't take me wrong, I like Grisham's novels, I'm not a big fan, but I enjoy reading his books nonetheless. He is not a master storyteller but he writes enjoyable stuff.

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).

There was absolutely no rythm to the book. It started as a criminal investigation, and I thought it will turn into a revealing story about a secret and devastating shady business that a big company is involved in and I'll get to read some great legal thriller, but somehow it turned into a kind of success story for the protagonist. Then I told myself, hey, its going to be one of those stories where he'll get inside the company and then start digging when his conscious will hit him hard. Nothing of that sort happened. Then I told myself, he will turn into a cruel dick and hot shot tort lawyer whom everyone will despise but envy his brilliant mind. Again, did not happen and the book ended. Extreme bakwas.

Good read into class action lawsuits and bad drugs.

At times very repetitive and i found Clay to be very gullible to think it was all going to end well. I did however learn about Tort law which prior to reading this book did not even know it existed. This story made lawyers look very corrupt and greedy they were like a pack of hungry wolves.

j clay carter II works at the public defenders office. he has just been handed another murder case. Tequila Watson is accused of killing Ramon Pumphrey. As Carter starts to look I not the facts of the killing he is approached by Max Pace. Max has a deal for him..he will make more money than he has ever dreamed of but must leave the public defenders office and is representing a mysterious drug company. Quickly Carter starts his own law firm and meets Patton French and is thrown into the world of mass tort cases and about making more mo ey than ever dreamed of.

The book was good...I liked reading about Carter and how he was learning the tort system and his thoughts on it. it was interesting about the relationship between Rebecca and Ridley and hiw he thought of them and they way they interacted. I do enjoy Grisham books and look forward to the next one.

Several years ago, I read everything John Grisham wrote. I guess, though, burnout set in, and after I read The Brethren, I was done with Grisham. I liked The Brethen enough. I guess. I just can't say that I remember it very well. In any case, I was tired of legal thrillers. Other than An Innocent Man, which doesn't really count because it is a true story, after all, I haven't read a Grisham novel for well over ten years.

And this was decent. But I'm thinking of stories like The Partner, The Firm, and The Pelican Brief. I might be suffering from memory loss - but the way I remember those stories is different than the way I think The King of Torts reads. I remember those first stories being intense and exciting. I remember that I couldn't stop reading because they were filled with clever plot twists.

The King of Torts isn't a thriller like those first Grisham novels. J. Clay Carter II is a lowly public defender in Washington, D.C. But his luck is about to change. When Carter decides to take a generous but shady offer and start up his own shop, he finds himself in the midst of very large mass tort litigation cases, and he is probably in over his head. He's making millions, hiring paralegals and attorneys left and right and buying expensive boats, jets, homes. In fact, he's spending it with reckless abandon while his personal life is spinning wildly out of control. But Mr. Carter takes comfort as he becomes the newly crowned "King of Torts."

Maybe this is why I didn't love it. It isn't the thriller I was expecting. But even more, I really detested torts in law school. Not because the reading wasn't interesting or even because they class discussions weren't engaging - they were. How can you not be interested in cases that include a dolt who saws off his fingers after ignoring clear and precise safety warnings placed all over his new saw and who then goes and sues the manufacturer anyway? It's a train wreck, and you can't turn away from it. But the sleaziness of such nonsense...I mean what lawyer takes a case like that...it just never sat right with me. However, these tort lawyers, they are something else; they are the epitome of every shark lawyer joke ever made. Very stock...I really don't believe every tort attorney is this low. And several do really good work for people who deserve compensation. Mr. Carter and his new pals are not doing such work.

And as Mr. Carter slips further into the morass of mass tort litigation, he finds his moorings slipping right along with is personal life. I wanted to think more of Carter, but since I didn't really see what kind of guy he was before - he actually seemed like kind of a jerk from the beginning - I wasn't surprised to watch his fall. I think if Grisham wanted me to feel any sympathy for him, Carter needed to be more sympathetic from the start. Classic lack of character development.

However, the story was engaging enough and the twist at the end was interesting, if a bit predictable, kind of. And I did appreciate the angle it took on mass tort litigation. Is it abusive even if a drug company manufactures a dangerous drug? Shouldn't lawyers know who they represent rather than file mass cases for thousands of individuals they have never met face to face? I'd never given it much thought, but I have now, and it doesn't sit quite right with me.

It isn't my favorite Grisham, but it was good. And I'm now reading The Appeal, so...I guess I'm sort of on a Grisham kick.

This is a cautionary tale! It reminded me of that old adage, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! Clay Carter is stuck in a dead end public defenders job, when he meets someone who offers him a way out. Soon, Clay is immersed in his own rags to riches story, all through the magic of mass torts. Will it last? Is the man who started him on this path honorable, or looking for an inexperienced lawyer on which to prey. The book is a fascinating look at the world of mass torts and huge lawsuits and settlements and the effects on both sides, as well as the lawyers involved. It is a glimpse into corporate greed that can put the public at risk of harm, making the tort system necessary. It shows both the need for and the pitfalls of tort lawsuits. I will remember this book every time I see one of those lawsuit ads on TV! I enjoyed the book!

The rise and fall of a public defense attorney turned hotshot lawyer, plus fun stuff about mass tort litigation for people like myself who know nothing about that world. An entertaining, fast-paced read.

Now this is what you call a page turner! I just could not put this down... This is the style of legal thriller that drew me into reading John Grisham's books in the first place and this one just took me right back to the first time I read one of his books.

We follow Clay Carter who is a young lawyer who works for the Office of the Public Defender. His girlfriend and her family have high hopes of her marrying someone that is a high achiever and high earner and, at this time, Clay just isn't it. On his own, Clay gets an offer of a lifetime. Soon he has started his new business and is raking in the money. Could it be as easy as this to gain money and legal fame?

There are so many things I loved about this book but if I had to pick one it would have to be the legal process. Following Clay as he makes his different legal moves, how he deals with clients and how he deals with colleagues. We follow the process of massive complex medical legal cases and how these are 'negotiated'. I have to be honest and say that I didn't really care for the way that he treated his new girlfriend, as a sort of play thing and a sort of status play but that was such a minor part in this story it really didn't bother me that much but I guess at the moment he makes the decision to be with her he has lost all sense of reason anyway in the bigger picture. I also enjoyed the ending but would have loved something a bit more explosive than what we had.

That said, I loved this story and the writing. It was so good to delve into a really great legal thriller.


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Debs :-)

Having recently read another John Grisham novel I feel it’s a bit of the same old but slightly different hence the two stars think I’m a bit over reading Grisham novels.