The Appeal (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As the author of twenty bestselling books, John Grisham has set the standard for legal thrillers since the debut of The Firm in 1991. Enjoy this Q&A--as well as a personal note to Amazon readers--from John Grisham.

1. Your new novel starts off where most courtroom dramas end--with the verdict. Where did you get the idea to reverse the usual order of events this time around?
The actual trial is not a terribly significant part of the story. Most all of the action and intrigue begins after the trial is over, with the verdict and the subsequent appeal.


2. The Appeal overtly suggests that elected judges can be bought. If the novel is meant as a cautionary tale, what's next--the Presidential primaries?
Why not? Over one billion dollars will be spent next year in the Presidential primaries and general election. With that kind of money floating around, anything can be bought.


3. Speaking of electoral politics, you've been more vocal recently about your political views ... first supporting Jim Webb for Senate and now endorsing Hillary Clinton for the White House. Have you given any thought to running for office yourself?
No. I made that mistake 25 years ago, and promised myself I would never do it again. I enjoy watching and participating in politics from the sidelines, but it's best to keep some distance.


4. This is your first legal thriller in three years. How did it feel to get back to the genre that started it all, and can fans expect another thriller from you next year?
I still enjoy writing the legal thrillers, and don't plan to get too far away from them. Obviously, they have been very good to me, and they remain popular. I plan to write one a year for the next several years.


5. Your nonfiction book The Innocent Man continues to be a bestseller in paperback. In your ongoing work with The Innocence Project, have you come across another story of the wrongfully convicted that begs to be written as nonfiction?
There are literally hundreds of great stories out there about wrongfully convicted defendants. I am continually astounded by these stories, and I resist the temptation to take the plunge again into non-fiction.


6. What's on your bedside reading list at the moment?
1. The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
2. Eric Clapton's autobiography
3. East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

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From Publishers Weekly

A Mississippi jury returns a $41-million verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping carcinogenic waste into a small town's water supply. The company's ruthless billionaire CEO is thwarted and the good guys (a courageous young woman who lost her husband and child and her two lawyers who've gone half a million dollars in debt preparing her case) receives its just reward. This sounds like the end of a Grisham legal thriller, but instead it's the beginning of a book-length lesson in how greed and big business have corrupted our electoral and judicial systems. Grisham's characters are over-the-top. The CEO and the other equally overdone villains—his venal trophy wife, a self-serving senator and a pair of smarmy political fixers—as well as the unbelievably good-hearted, self-sacrificing lawyers and an honorable state judge, are one dimensional. Michael Beck, with his natural Southern drawl, does a fine job of adding credibility and nuance to the large cast. But his efforts are for naught. In fact, the more he makes us feel for these characters, the less apt we are to be satisfied with the sourball moral of Grisham's downbeat discourse.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (January 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385515049
• ISBN-13: 978-0385515047
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (638 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,197 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

159 of 184 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Much ado about nothing, March 21, 2008

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

Rated: 2.5 stars for half of a good book

The Innocent Man


Amanda Richards, March 21, 2008

110 of 132 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cardboard characters, I'm so eeevil villain, February 8, 2008

By	SereneNight (California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Evil uncaring chemical baron Carl Trudeau's company has been poisoning the city of Bowmore's drinking water for years. After people start coming down with cancer and related ailments, the company cuts and runs to Mexico leaving hundreds of people ill and dying and the ground water contaminated. A scrappy altruistic attorney couple(the Paytons) sues Krane on behalf of a widowed client and wins a sizeable settlement. Carl Trudeau chooses to fight back, using his deep pockets and political connections.

I wanted to like this story, but I felt the good guy characters-particularly the attorneys -(the Paytons), were annoying. They were a little too perfect, a little too altruistic... It was very saccharine. The Paytons were both such Mary Sue's I didn't identify with them at all. Ironically, I liked the antics of the evil villains more because at least their plots and plans were entertaining.

Overall this was a decent book, but I found the simplistic character development aggravating.

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars My Toughest Verdict, February 16, 2008

By	Eric Wilson "novelist" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I've followed Grisham's career for years, enjoying everything from his legal thrillers to his novellas. Sure, some of his more recent legal outings have faltered ("The Brethren" was awful, for example), but I've hung in there. Recently, he released "Playing for Pizza," and I thought this might be his attempt at regaining a second wind by doing something offbeat. Offbeat, indeed. I cannot recommend that particular book to anyone, based on the milquetoast lead character and his refusal to learn, change, mature, or give a decent story.

With the arrival of "The Appeal," I once again let my hopes soar. I heard some good feedback from a bookstore owner. I bought the book, and--to my thorough amazement--breezed through the first hundred pages in one sitting. The old Grisham was back, I told myself. This might be one of his best in years. All the pieces were in place for a great story.

Although "The Appeal" is nothing original, I was hooked by Grisham's portrayal of David and Goliath characters. The giant: Carl Trudeau, owner of a company that has illegally dumped chemicals into Mississippi waters and earth, resulting in cancer, leukemia, and the lost lives of many local townspeople. The midget: Payton & Payton, a law team of husband and wife who have risked everything to bring about justice. Grisham paints both protagonists and his antagonist with skill and empathy. Trudeau and his shallow trophy-wife were the villains you love to hate. I kept turning the pages.

As usual, Grisham takes issue with something in our legal system and makes a moral or political point. Here, he mixes familiar ingredients from "The Firm" (manipulation), rants from "The Chamber" (capital punishment), and bits from "The King of Torts" (huge settlements). Where he falters is in his shifting of focus from David and Goliath to a host of other participants in the drama. What starts as great fiction turns into a mishmash of thinly veiled non-fiction. After page 120, I could've sworn I was wading through portions of "The Innoce nt Man" (a decent non-fiction title, by the way). I wanted a novel, though. Sure, I had expected a "message" from Grisham, but I'd also hoped to follow strong characters from first to last page.

My verdict, like the supreme court in this book, hung in the balance to the very end. Maybe the climax (never a Grisham strength) would redeem the faltering storytelling. Maybe I'd be swayed back to the fondness I felt for the first third of the story. Instead, Trudeau, the love-to-hate villain, turns into a cartoonish character ("he laughed and rubbed his hands together"...an actual quote). Then, Grisham throws in an uncharacteristic deus ex machina to tease, then trick, the reader.

I have to give the book two stars for pointing out huge flaws in the election system, regarding campaign funds and the ability, in essence, to purchase a judge--a fact that still remains in over thirty states. All of this makes readable non-fiction. And for many pages, I thought that's what I was sifting through, because it had strayed so far from the norms of good fiction.

Will I get my hopes up again? No. Will I buy the next Grisham? I think not. He apparently has forgotten how to care about his characters for more than half a book. In so doing, he has left me feeling the same.