If You Liked "The Firm", You'll Like This Tale
344441
The plot is not too outlandish considering our country's history. The plot has big oil, a corrupt law firm & investigative reporting the way it used to be.  The author uses his law experience to weave a tense tale with a female heroine who knows the ins & outs of the legal profession.  Ignore the negative reviews, if only to avoid spoilers.

Some of the reviewers are correct about keeping track of the characters.  Sometimes he uses their first name & sometimes the last name but that aside, its a page turner with some surprises & payoffs for the reader.  The movie is not an improvement on the book so read the book first.  If you enjoyed "The Firm", you'll enjoy this tale. Keep in mind it was written in 1991 so some of the references to the technology of the time are dated.
4592500
Is a lawyer dutybound to defend a client he suspects is guilty? To what extent is the lawyer-client privilege protected? Phillip Margolin tackles this and more in the very readable legal thriller The Last Innocent Man.
After wrenching a client, accused of murder, from the jaws of justice, David Nash, lawyer extraordinaire, christened "The Ice Man", has about had enough.
He feels no pleasure in his victory, having grown tired of defending guilty men. Nash is looking for an innocent man.
However when Nash defends a fellow lawyer Larry Stafford for murder, he realizes he has gotten more than he bargained. For not only is he sleeping with his client's wife, he discovers they both could be lying to him.
Realizing what is at stake, The Ice Man mounts a robust defence for Stafford. Will it be enough? You'll have to read the book to find the fate of the Last Innocent Man.
Margolin, a criminal defense attorney at Portland, writes decently well. His tackling of the ethical implication of defending the guilty, or of inappropriate relations with a client's spouse provide for juicy thinking.
Gault comes across as an impressive street version of Hannibal Lecter; Nash, as seriously conflicted. The court scenes though not exceptional are nonetheless formidable. Imagine the drama of the Mercedes Benz testimony in a real courtroom.
Yet as with most books from this genre, there is stuff that stretches the imagination. I have known sex to be a legendary prop for authors, but having sex with a lady the first hour you meet her is taking it a tad too far.
The courtroom scenes with his ex lacked flying sparks, while Conklin's murder merited greater attention. The book ended nicely, though I would have expected a greater punch.

Still The Innocent Man is worth a read, meriting the attention you would give to a Grisham.
671433
The Funny Man is well-written, with many engaging elements, e.g. the dialogue between the narrator and his attorney Barry was always witty and entertaining. The story shifts between the past and the present, and I found the story of his trial (the present) more engaging. The details of the funny man's rise to fame (the past) were less engaging, and occasionally unbelievable (e.g., the reality show where people get punched in the face). The story takes a turn in the second half that (without spoiling anything) was interesting, but not especially compelling. On the other hand, there were many passages that had me completely absorbed. Warner is especially adept at creating great tension at key moments in the funny man's story. A worthwhile read.
3187627
This is one of Grisham's best: upbeat,interesting, and restores your faith in human nature.  Not all lawyers find happiness in chasing the almighty dollar.  Some actually use their skill to help the forgotten and neglected of society.  You get a glimpse of the homeless community, and the uphill battle that their advocates fight every day.  Grisham lets you see them as human beings. Besides, you've got to love this guy who quits an important law firm to become it's biggest headache when he represents a class action against them.

The story is interesting, the characters are intelligent and you are delighted with the ending, which is not the case in many books. I gave it to my neighbor who loved it, and lent to to her sister.  It's that good.
3617688
Want a good book to pass an afternoon or two that's not super-intellectual, yet remains clever, smart, and has a fast pace?  This is that book.

Confessions of a Contractor is an unusual book as contemporary fiction goes.  It's written from the perspective of a contractor, as the title indicates, about his work and various affairs.  What I thought would be a simple tale that was sort of mediocre was actually, well, a damn good read.

The main character, Henry, makes quite a good living overhauling houses in the hollywood suburbs.  He drives an old and beat up truck despite his money.  The truck, and a large surplus of wood are his treasures.  They may seem like odd keepsakes, but both belonged to his father - a man of great care and dedication, who passed on his tremendous skill and work ethic to his son.

This story isn't about Henry so much as it's about human nature, and how we often put ourselves in the lives of others, deeply enmeshing there without realizing it.  Henry unwittingly becomes caught up in the stories of two women, one named Sally who is single and desires the ever popular among the young "friends with benefits", and the other is Rebecca, a young woman married to a real-estate seminar jerk that has a history for being...less than noble with women.

What ensues is a tangle of a mess for Henry, inside and out, as he juggles not only too many work commitments, but the personal problems of his clients that he becomes far too wrapped up in.  There are some love affairs, arguments, an old crazy girlfriend, and even smuggling.  It's quite the book.

What is unmistakable about Henry, is that he is what most of us want to be - sure he makes his share of mistakes, and becomes overly involved when he shouldn't, but at the core of things, he's a decent guy who tries his best.

Give Henry's tale a try.  It's a great read, a fast one, and just plain fun all around.
1323068
Corporate red tape and bureaucracy are always fertile subjects for fiction writers, and John Dolan cleverly exploits the corporate mindset in "Jim Fosse's Expense Claim," a darkly comic tale of how one most unusual employee's method of doing business clashes with a very typical corporate culture.

The story is written in the form of a series of e-mails, most of them between the eponymous Jim Fosse, an employee of a fictional power company, and Ramon Ortiz, the pencil pusher in HR responsible for approving travel expenses. Fosse is the company's business development manager, who has just returned from a trip to southeast Asia, where he was successful in landing some new agreements. However, as Ortiz presses Fosse for receipts and other documentation of his expenses, Fosse becomes increasingly hostile. And, when Ortiz learns that Fosses methods of landing the contracts involve some, ahem, unusual methods of persuasion for the local officials, he cant quite square those methods with the corporate manual.

Theres not a lot of plot to Jim Fosses Expense Claim, but the story does have a clever twist at the end (one that is, however, considerably diminished by a glaring factual error by the author that was not caught in editing). The story is enjoyable because the author has managed to perfectly tap into the corporate mindset, creating a series of e-mails in which corporate flaks try, with increasingly diminished levels of success, to cope with an employee who gleefully sees nothing wrong with some highly unethical practices. Along the way, the story manages to elicit quite a few chuckles, especially from those who have ever struggled with jumping through corporate hoops themselves.

Although the story takes place at the turn of the century and was written in 2012, those who read it for the first time in 2018, in the post-Harvey Weinstein corporate era, will do so from a somewhat different perspective. Actually, this altered perspective makes the story even more fascinating. To say much more would give away some of the best plot developments, but lets just say that Jim Fosses antics would be even less welcome and more darkly entertaining today.

Apparently, Jim Fosse is a character in some of Dolans longer, more serious works, but Jim Fosses Expense Claim is completely self-contained, and currently, completely free on Amazon. Its quite a short work, and an even shorter read because the author inserts the to and from lines on each e-mail, resulting in headings that are often longer than the single-sentence e-mails themselves. But its a fun read that almost everyone in the corporate world can easily relate to. Jim Fosses Expense Claim should definitely be approved by readers.
4636804
John Grisham's "The Appeal" really opened my eyes to the ways in which big business can influence the work of our judiciary branch.  More generally, it also illustrates the ways in which special interests can commandeer and manipulate our political campaigns with largely symbolic issues (like flag burning or gay marriage) that benefit candidates who will protect their financial interests.  These concepts are not new, but Grisham really brings them to life.

I agree with some other reviewers that many of Grisham's characters in this book seem fairly one-dimensional.  The good guys are really good, and the bad guys are really bad.  Still, as evil and single-mindedly profit-driven as the "bad guys" in this book appear, I suspect there are plenty of real people just like them.

The book was enjoyable to read and flowed quickly.  But after the first 50 pages or so, it was not difficult to see where the book was headed.  Nonetheless, as always, John Grisham entertains.  I do think it was worth reading.
4247990
I won this via a drawing on thefrugalereader.com from the author Peg Herring. I enjoyed the tale quite a bit. I like following a story within the story. In one portion you're following the distant tale of John via the Vicar's musings of the narrative and the other your in the present with Mercedes hazardous venture. There were a few occasions (in the present time) the tale seemed to skip ahead leaving me to wonder if I missed a page somehow.  I was paging back to check. Somewhat reminding me of how a program picks up after a commercial. That was the only real hiccup for me.
I love to read stories where the past is scrutinized in a new twisted way giving more speculation to an already well examined subject. Shakespeare's Blood provides theories, intrigue and much more. As for the characters, Mercedes is a smart, inquisitive and headstrong American touring Scotland with a companion that is every bit the annoyingly needy and condescending widow that you can imagine (more like a crotchety old spinster comes to mind). There is the quirky tour guide, police you can trust or mistrust, the old misanthrope and of course the gorgeous men who seem trust worthy as well as many other curious characters she meets along the way. Mystery, murder, romance and adventure in the idyllic setting of Scotland.
4712806
This account of skullduggery and dirty dealing at the highest levels of a large corporation starts with a murder (the first of a good few) and identifies the murderer quite early on; the true mystery is not the  who-dunit or the how-dunnit, but the why-dunnit. Why are top executives at CapVest suddenly dropping off ski slopes and mountain roads? Is one of their colleagues behind it all  and for what gain? Who is paying the expensive and highly skilled assassin for professional services rendered?  The author has a great deal of real-world experience to draw on in  which is the strong suit in this tangled account of greed at the very highest levels. Some of the minor instances of deal-making with a sting in the tail had the ring of authenticity about them.

There are a lot of characters to juggle in this marrative, some of whom were not particularly memorable as drawn  and being fast-paced it does involve a lot of sudden shifts in viewpoint and in location. For me, the assassin himself was curiously the most interesting and appealing of them. Since I did read this over a relatively long period of time, I had to go back and remind myself who they were and why they were important to the story. After a relatively leisurely set up, the final denouement did seem a little more rushed, and the author reverted more to telling rather than showing through dialog and action  but I was surprised by one of the final twists. It was well-set and sneakily set up, so bravo in laying the necessary character-building to make it work. There was a particular conceit brought out in the final pages  about the various suspect characters mirroring the seven deadly sins. I would have liked to see that having been brought out earlier, as it would have made a very effective means of telling the story and making them more memorable.
2480598
Imagine your father, who is dying, is a successful judge in your hometown, which is Clanton, Mississippi.  He summons you and your brother to discuss his estate, and you arrive to discover that your father is already dead.  In a closet, you find $2 million in cash.  You think you are the only one who knows about the money, but you are wrong.  Suddenly, you don't know who is your friend and who isn't.  You're not sure who it might be, but someone is after the money.  This is the plot of The Summons, by John Grisham, and the life of Ray Atlee, a law professor and the narrator of the book.  The Summons depicts Ray's quest to find the origin of the money and who is after it.
 The Summons is the second John Grisham book I have read, the first being The King of Torts.  I found many similarities between the two, but nothing redundant.  Like many Grisham novels, The Summons depicts a lawyer who is offered money without any visible consequences.  The lawyer hesitates, but goes for the money and later pays for his mistake.  To make this observation more general, the lawyer is faced with a moral conflict.
 The Summons is very suspenseful and addicting.  All of the characters are interesting, each with good and bad traits.  The scenes are never dull, and are always intriguing.  For instance, Ray has a unique way of relieving his stress - flying airplanes.  Before he drives to the airport for the first time in the book, the reader would never guess and is surprised that Ray is a pilot.  A good example of a person with mixed traits is Forrest, Ray's brother.  Forrest is a drug addict, but he is always trying to quit.  He is able to do it for a few months, but then he starts again.  Despite this, he is determined to stop.  Forrest always acts upbeat, and greets Ray with an affectionate, "Hey, Bro."  This shows that even though Forrest has a tough life, he manages to act friendly.
 I am glad I read The Summons and The King of Torts so close together because I realized that the books shared some characters and ideas.  For instance, the mass tort lawsuits, which are in The King of Torts, are incorporated in The Summons in three ways.  First, the Skinny Ben prescription weight loss program lawsuit that is mentioned in The King of Torts provides Forrest with a job in The Summons.  Second, Ray meets Patton French, a mass tort lawyer, who plays a leading role in The King of Torts.  Third, French's yacht is even named "The King of Torts."
 The Summons is possibly the easiest book to relate to that I have ever read.  The events that take place in Grisham's books are similar to events that happen in real life.  When you read about them, the opportunities offered to the main characters make you question your own values.  I feel that this is the best and most unique quality of these books.  I would recommend The Summons to anyone who likes to read.
3852257
Ross Lawhead seems to be taking after his father, weaving together fantasy, history and Anglo/Celtic mythology like a medieval tapestry.

And his solo debut novel "The Realms Thereunder" is a great way to kick off a writing career. While the time-flipping narrative gets a little annoying at times, Lawhead crafts a genuinely suspenseful tale with gentle humor, strong writing and a rich mythic core focusing on the knights who slumber under England.

Eight years ago, Daniel Tully and Freya Reynolds went mysteriously missing. What nobody except them knows is that they wandered into an underground chamber where a pair of ancient knights slept. Those knights took them into the underground kingdom of Niergeard, an ancient magical land ruled by an immortal king, and surrounded by an army of the gruesome yfelgpes.

And in that place, Daniel and Freya learned of Gd, a malevolent creature intent on destroying the city and its magic -- as well as the legendary warriors who slumber in the earth. The only ones who could stop him were the mortal children.

In the present day, Freya is a student at Oxford and Daniel is homeless. But after he encounters a yfelgpe, both of them are slowly pulled back into the old conflict -- Freya becomes drawn into a strange dream-life, while Daniel is yanked into Elfland. And their only hope lies in Niergeard...

"The Realms Thereunder" is a hard book to pin down -- it has a rare mythic richness mingled with whimsy, which echoes classic authors like J.R.R. Tolkien. It's both high fantasy and urban fantasy, modern yet timeless, overflowing with Anglo-Celtic lore but easily accessible.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have some rough edges. The constant bouncing between past and present is a bit distracting, and occasionally Lawhead's plot seems to float away from him.

But his writing style is strong and lush, filled with poetry and haunting turns of phrase. His descriptions of Elfland and Niergeard are spellbinding, but he drops in some dryly humorous moments ("... the Society of Concerned Individuals. It's a deliberately vague and eccentric title") that remind me of classic British literature.

And he peppers his story with dragons, knights, gnomes, ancient weavers, the needle-toothed yfelgpes and noble Elves. Daniel and Freya are compelling central heroes -- in the past we see them as bright-eyed, plucky child heroes in a strange fantastical world, and in the present as older, more reluctant figures who struggle in their daily lives because of what they've seen. I don't think I've seen another author who handled that idea.

"The Realms Thereunder" is a promising debut for Ross Lawhead -- a rich melting pot of fantasy, myth and imagination. Now if only we had the next book.
2074220
Ian Wells is an attorney in Minneapolis who is slowly getting his practice where he wants it.  His dad was an attorney also, and dealt in boring things like wills, trusts, deeds, etc.  (Actually, I worked for a lawyer who did this kind of stuff and it is amazing how boring it all is, so I totally empathized with Ians feelings).  Ian has always wanted to go into criminal defense, but when his dad passed away he felt obligated to take over that practice.  Over the last few years hes been shifting to criminal law, but in the meantime he has had a lot of financial setbacks.  His mom has Alzheimers and is getting to the point where she is going to need 24-hour care.  Several other very expensive problems are cropping up in Ians life all at once.

And then he gets the phone call: a man wants Ian to help with the conclusion of a twenty-year-old trust fund  Ian must determine whether or not three men qualify to receive their share of the trust money.  In exchange, Ian gets a huge payoff.  Ian feels like there has to be something sketchy going on, but hes reaching a point of desperation.

Johnson does a GREAT job pacing this book.  I found myself drawn right in, and every baby step that Ian takes seems completely reasonable  until he suddenly realizes that hes completely stranded in a complicated quagmire.  Ians financial issues are involved just enough to make the story believable without making them absurd  just enough to make Ian ignore his gut and keep going.  The tension ratchets up perfectly  at first I was just moderately interested in Ian and his life, but by about a third of the way into the book I could hardly put it down.

The romance in this book was at just about a perfect level  enough to provide some motivation for characters but not so much that it derailed the actual story.  Like Johnsons earlier books, there was nothing overtly religious in the story, but it was devoid of bad language, sex, and graphic violence, all of which I really appreciate.

I was genuinely impressed by the way this whole story came together.  Small details that seemed irrelevant at the time end up tying together at the end.  While I thought I had a lot of the story figured out, there were some extra twists that I didn't see coming, but that didn't feel at all unreasonable.  Knowing the ending made me want to read the book again and see the clues that Johnson left, which (to me) is always the sign of a good thriller.

The only really weird thing about this book was that it was set in 2018.  I never understand why books do this, because Johnsons 2018 looked exactly like real-life 2017.  And who knows what is going to happen in the next year that could make the 2018 dates seem really weird.  I mean, if I wrote a book in 2000 and set it in September 2001 and the book never mentioned 9/11, it would seem really strange.  So that kind of threw me off, even if it is a more or less minor thing to pick on.

Thanks to Bethany House for providing me with this copy to review.
4775767
John Grisham is wonderful at writing Pot-Boilers which Hollywood just happens to love.  His knowledge of law and his imagination have catapaulted him into success ever since The Firm.  What we didn't know (but always suspected) was that Grisham can transcend his familiar genre and still work his magic.
Told in the voice of a small boy on a cotton farm in the 1950's, A Painted House is a wonderfully told novel that I really enjoyed. While the story has a compelling pace and plot, it may not satisfy the hard-core Grisham fans.  There is, indeed, no courtroom scene.  I kept bracing for certain storylines to evolve into full-blown, Grisham-esque thrillers, but was pleasantly surprised when they did not.
There's a quiet little corner in Grisham's heart, a little Kent Haruf.  If you have that in you, read this book.  You'll find it resonates a lot longer than most of his blockbusters.
3058729
I really enjoy reading both legal thrillers and courtroom dramas (the latter being more about the trial and the mystery of what the verdict will be rather than characters in peril from a mystery bad guy).  Most of them are about the attorneys but this one was written by a judge with the protagonist being a judge.

As the author is a senior federal district court judge who has tried a death penalty case, he can add a lot of realistic detail to the story.  The decision to try murder cases in federal court in states with no death penalty has also been in the news lately with the announcement that the government will try the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in federal court in order to seek the death penalty.

The story in this book is about a drive-by shooting of a gang member that also kills a bystander who is a white lady volunteering at a neighborhood clinic -- and related to a member of the police department.  The one suspect who is arrested makes a plea deal to give up the shooter, who is rousted out of bed and arrested while his home is searched.

The judge in the case is not the "hanging judge" of the title -- he is a political appointee who appears to e a workman-like judge who cares about giving the accused a fair trial.  There are flash-backs to an early American murder trial (I'm not clear whether it is real history or created for the book) where prejudice against the Irish defendants resulted in an unfair conviction and hanging.

I enjoyed following the case from the early days, through the trial itself and wondering whether the defendant was  innocent or guilty and whether he would be convicted and given the death penalty or acquitted.

This book doesn't have the "flashiness" of some of the legal thrillers (it's definitely cut from a different cloth that your typical Grisham thriller) but is a solid and interesting book that I enjoyed reading.  I hope the author will write another book.
4524453
I enjoyed this legal thriller with it's weird characters, an off-beat crammy law firm and a burnt-out corporate protoganist who joins them because he had no choice! The plot develops around a suprising class-action, and grew as steadily as the claimants grew and various aspects of the legal environment are pulled in from employment for immigrants to arguing without experience in the Federal Court. If you need a few good laughs and lots of fun with the illogical logic of the legal world, unethical 2nd class lawyers as well as unethical corporate lawyers and their larney firms, you will definitely enjoy this roller-coaster legal fiction.
1552661
Jack Flippo is a young man with a bright future. He's married, living in a nice home and is a rising star in the Dallas, Texas DA's office, where Jack is employed as an Assistant DA. Then he makes the age-old mistake of sleeping with the wrong woman, who, unbeknownst to Jack, is actually the wife of a drug dealer currently being prosecuted by the DA. Suddenly, Jack is divorced, living in a crappy excuse for a house, and attempting to eek out a living as a wedding photographer and part-time unlicensed PI.

A sleezeball attorney attorney named Hal is retained by a woman claiming to be the wife of Buddy George, Jr., a motivational speaker who's making a pile of money encouraging people to improve their lot in life. The woman gives the attorney the room number of the hotel where Buddy will be entertaining a Sweet Young Thing named Sharronda following his evening's motivational presentation, and the attorney hires Jack to take the room next door and get the recordings that will enable the voluptuous Mrs. George to sue for divorce.

Jack is up for the challenge and sets up his equipment. But then things suddenly go wrong on a number of fronts and Jack finds himself under serious threat from the police, from the aforementioned Mr. George, from the lawyer's stunning client, and from a would-be tough guy and aspiring talk show host named Teddy Deuce who serves as muscle for Hal, the attorney.

It all makes for a very entertaining romp. Even though Jack's life is in the crapper, he still has his standards; he's still smart and funny as hell, and you can't help rooting for the guy. The supporting cast feels like it stepped out of a Carl Hiaasen novel by way of Elmore Leonard, and the story moves along at just the right pace.

First published in 1994, this is the first in what would ultimately become a six-book series featuring Jack Flippo. All in all, it's a fun read that will appeal to large numbers of people who enjoy their crime fiction on the somewhat lighter side.
2732651
For a collection of anecdotes strung together by a layperson in the employ of a conservative think tank, "The Litigation Explosion" is pretty good.  Walter Olson's tales are usually interesting, especially when he deviates from the facts of cases.  His animosity toward lawyers makes for diatribes that are far more amusing than informative, so Olson's storytelling adds up to theses that seem more compelling the less that one actually knows about law.  As is usual for popularizations, "The Litigation Explosion" will move the unwary to outrage and to tears.  It will not educate the unwary, of course.  It will instead adjust their attitudes so that they will embrace tort reform by book's end.  Olson is a master propagandist, which is usually what the Manhattan Institute wants and pays for.
Walter Olson has produced an accessible book regarding lawsuits.  His writing is lively.  You'll laugh; you'll cry; your blood will boil if you mistake his caricatures for reality.  If you believe that lawyer jokes are not merely funny but scholarship, this book is for you.