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In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town's water supply, causing the worst 'cancer cluster' in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it. Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided? The chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau, and Mr. Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket for a billionaire like Mr. Trudeau. Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mould him into a potential Supreme Court justice; their Supreme Court justice. "The Appeal" is a powerful, timely, and shocking story of political and legal intrigue, a story that will leave readers unable to think about the electoral process or judicial system in quite the same way ever again.
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Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi, law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby--writing his first novel.
Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.
One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.
That might have put an end to Grisham's hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career--and spark one of publishing's greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.
The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham's success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.
Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, The Appeal, and The Associate) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 250 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marked his first foray into non-fiction, and Ford County (November 2009) was his first short story collection.
Grisham lives with his wife Renee and their two children Ty and Shea. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm in Mississippi and a plantation near Charlottesville, VA.
Grisham took time off from writing for several months in 1996 to return, after a five-year hiatus, to the courtroom. He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer: representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars. Preparing his case with the same passion and dedication as his books' protagonists, Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500--the biggest verdict of his career.
When he's not writing, Grisham devotes time to charitable causes, including most recently his Rebuild The Coast Fund, which raised 8.8 million dollars for Gulf Coast relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He also keeps up with his greatest passion: baseball. The man who dreamed of being a professional baseball player now serves as the local Little League commissioner. The six ballfields he built on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little League teams.
Product Description
Amazon Review
John Grisham is now an institution -- a writer whose bestselling status is assured, So assured, in fact, that expectations for each new book are as high as can be imagined. Does The Appeal make the grade? And will it appeal to Grisham admirers -- or disappoint them?
The stakes in the novels plot are high: corporate crime on the largest scale. The duo of lawyers at the centre of the narrative are Mary and Wes Grace, who succeed in a multimillion dollar case against a chemical company, who have polluted a town with dumped toxic waste. A slew of agonising deaths have followed this, but lawyers for the chemical company appeal, and a variety of legal shenanigans are employed -- and it is certainly not clear which way the scales of justice will be finally balanced.
As ever with Grisham, the mechanics of plotting are key, and the characterisation is functional rather than detailed. But it is (as always) more than capable of keeping the reader totally engaged. Given John Grisham's much-publicised conversion to born-again Christianity, it's intriguing to note here the implicit criticism of the moral majoritys religious values, but that is hardly central to the enterprise. What counts is the storytelling, and while the writing is as straightforward and uncomplicated as ever, few readers will put down The Appeal once they have allowed it to exert its grip on upon them. --Barry Forshaw
Review
"Recalling Dickens and other 19th century fiction... Riveting." (Sunday Times)
"What he does so well is to people his plots with clearly defined characters... He makes it riveting." (Mirror)
"A tense, thoughtful, absorbing read." (The Times)
"As usual Grisham is fantastically skilful at delineating the procedural ins and outs of the legal and business worlds in such a way that, as the reader, you feel rather clever yourself." (Daily Express)
"Reads both like an inspirational debut and a brilliant career masterpiece... Technically the book is a tour de force, the characters perfectly balanced and precisely drawn, the forward-thrusting chapters sculpted in size and rhythm... The Appeal is a blatant page turner but I guarantee you will hate reaching the end." (Sunday Express)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
What a disappointing Grisham novel. They are slowly getting worse. Of course the legal side is interesting but the story - boring and tedious - too many uninteresting characters about whom I couldn't care less. The book dragged on to a poor ending. I thought the new yacht, together with all the useless people on board, was going to sink - pity it didn't. I think this novel may have been written by a 'ghost writer'. I shall not bother to purchase any more of Grisham's novels.
Has a great and one of my favourite authors, simply lost the plot?!!!! This book and his last 'Playing for Pizza' have been the two worst Grisham books that I have read. How can a man who has written some of the best books I have ever read write two books on the spin which, in being kind, I would say were a complete waste of money?!!!!!!! In all sincerity, I would have to think twice before buying another Grisham new release!
If you've never read a Grisham before - DO NOT start with this one. I can normally read one of his in an afternoon but I've been picking at this one for a week and have just completed it. It's slow moving, not much going on and the ending SUCKS big time.
I bought the book as soon as I saw it in the shops, but right from the onset it was a struggle to read and not at all what I associate with John Grisham books. Don't buy this one, borrow it from the library if you must but don't waste your money!
The last year or so have been troublesome as I haven't had a 'generic' John Grisham to read on my holidays. I fell into this routine a decade ago and it became a habit although not last year as I read reviews of the Pizza book and decided I'd avoid. Imagine my utter joy this year when I discover a new 'proper' Grisham book to chill me out in my first few days of holiday - it was a paperback too so that was good! I'm back from holiday now and have finished 'The Appeal'. It is OK but just didn't satisfy in the way all, well I'm pretty sure all, previous Grisham legalpap books have. I associate Grisham books with multiple plot layers that weave, intrigue and conclude well. This is written around an interersting issue but not in a particulaly interesting or attention keeping way. It just isn't as good and at times seems to insult my intelligence in a way I never felt before.
So to all the others in the Grisham holiday reading club I'd suggest you get your expectations tuned down a bit: if you are expecting more of the same super lealpap then you'll be left a little empty come the (poor but timely) ending.
I've just finished reading more than 250 pages of filler with nothing worth mentioning at the end of it all, except that the ending "majorly" sucked.
Essentially a sordid tale of big business and politics vs. big verdicts and class action lawsuits, it begins nicely, and gathers steam, then proceeds to continue blowing hot air at the reader until the unsatisfactory quickie ending.
While there's some food for thought regarding how the legal, political, religious and business arenas may all be connected, there's more garnish than meat in a story which could have been cut by about 100 pages of the filler, and sweetened with about 50 more pages of conclusion for dessert.
Short Attention Span Summary (SASS)
1. Large company dumps chemicals in rural community 2. Water changes color 3. People get sick 4. Some die 5. Small law firm files lawsuit 6. Large verdict awarded 7. Big business takes over 8. Money talks 9. Once again, Grisham gets tired of his own rambling and wraps up story in indecent haste leaving most of his ends dangling 10. His ends aren't pretty
I'd like to sue for 50% of my money back, plus loss of productive time, legal costs and mental trauma, and also for punitive damages, but I guess I'd lose on appeal.
John Grisham's latest book takes place after a major trial. The main issue in this novel is whether private money should be used in electing judicial officials. I thought that might put me off, but I was able to keep up with it. The story written around this is both believable and engrossing. It's not just a legal thriller, it's much more tha that. It's more a thriller about the legal system. I had never actually read a Grisham book before, only ever seen the films, but I was relieved to find that this was a fine and exciting read. Recommended.
I have long been a fan of John Grisham's work and believe his best work was his first 4 novels which included A Time to Kill and The Firm. Let me start by saying that this book started off wonderful and I found the storyline extremely interesting. The narrative was great and i thoroughly liked the character. So where did it all go wrong? For me, it all went wrong at the end. When a reader becomes emotionally invested in the characters in a book, they want a 'pay-off' and not some hollow ending that screams "re-write". I got to the final chapter waiting for some revelation to arrive but sadly it never did. If you haven't read Grisham before, stick to his early novels and avoid this at all cost.