Customer Reviews

King of Torts

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(150)
3 star:		(138)
2 star:		(99)
1 star:		(117)

 

 

John Grisham began his writing career with a bang, publishing one great legal thriller after the next, a feat that brought him to the top of the publishing world very quickly. But in the last few years, his legal thrillers have been less than steller. Aside from his sweet, heartwarming A Painted House (which, ironically enough, was not a legal thriller), Grisham's novels have been on the boring side. Now, he returns with his yearly offering, a fun little novel called The King of Torts, a novel that brings him once step closer to regaining his title of King of the legal thriller.

In the book, we find a young public defendent named Clay, who is given the opportunity to earn 15 million dollars with just a few months's work. Soon enough, he is thrown into the world of mass litigation, where lawyers sue big corportations with thousands of claims. The millions start pouring in and Clay soon finds himself at the top of his game.

But what goes up must come down, a thing Clay does not seem to know. Halfway through the story, Clay realizes that he's in way over his head.

In Clay, Grisham creates a character you will both love and hate. His rise to success his fun to watch, but his downfall is much more interesting. It's the part in between that's problematic. Because, while Clay is on top, he becomes so obssessed with money and fame that he becomes a character you will despise. It's hard to like someone who's complaining about life when they own a yacht, a million dollar house, a penthouse in the south, and their own 45$ million jet. So when his downfall arrives, it's hard to feel sympathy for Clay.

The story is predictable, yet fun to read. Maybe the book would have been better had Clay been faced with harder, more problematic challenges and situations. As it is now, The King of Torts is a fund read that doesn't require much involvement from its readers. A good beach novel, but not much more than that.

Fans of John Grisham's earlier legal works should be pleased with this thriller set in the complex, greedy world of tort lawyers. You can't help but like and hate the main character, lawyer J. Clay Carter II as he changes from a low paid but dedicated attorney in the D.C. Public Defender's office to a high powered, freewheeling and greedy corporate lawyer. When the chance to cash in on 6 settlements for a new drug gone wrong lands in Carter's lap, he is lured into the jet-setting life of other wealthy attorneys looking for quick settlements. Even though you may not approve of their motives, the tort world is fascinating and a great story. As Carter buys into the lifestyle with a personal jet and home in the Carribbean yet seems unconcerned about settlements for his clients, you want to shake him. But those who rise quickly can fall the same way and the novel ends in a satisfying way.
Lots of subplots, interesting characters and fast paced action keeps you on pins and needles until the end of the story. I think this is a four star book, not quite at the level of his earlier works (The Firm and Pelican Brief) , but a huge improvement over later works such as The Summons and The Brethren.

It's always hard to read a book that has a lead character with few redeeming qualities, and the King of Torts is no exception. While the story is fascinating in its details about tort law, class action suits, and class action lawyers, who come out rather like comic book characters, it is not particularly gripping, as Clay Carter's roller coaster ride is completely predictable right to the end. This is a modern morality tale about money, greed, and power, and a very average one at that. Don't skip reading it, but don't expect a lot either.

Lately, John Grisham's books have been pretty bad. Skipping Christmas, A Painted House, The Brethren and The Summons were very forgettable. The King of Torts is different. It is a rags to riches story in which you can't help cheering for the protagonist, Clay Carter. As the novel begins Clay is stuck in a dead-end job as a public defender. In a hard to believe plot leap, Clay is contacted by a "fireman,"(a person hired by big corporations implicated in lawsuits to get a settlement) Max Pace who gives him the opportunity to make millions of dollars. Clay gleefully accepts this opportunity and is soon a hotshot multimillionaire with a private jet, house on St. Barts, Porsche and bimbo girlfriend. But of course, this couldn't last... The King of Torts seems to me as an illustration of the contempt in which Grisham holds the profession of mass tort lawyers. It's a quick, great read that will be sure to please fans of Grisham's and also those just looking for a thrilling read.

Like several reviewers, I have been less than enthralled with Grisham's latest legal thrillers. His last thriller, THE SUMMONS, in my opinion, was a yawner. However, after a brief sojourn into classic fiction with A PAINTED HOUSE and SKIPPING CHRISTMAS (which I highly recommend), Grisham has clawed his way back into the arena that made him the King of Legal Thrillers. THE KING OF TORTS is classic Grisham, in the form of A TIME TO KILL, THE FIRM, and my all-time favorite, THE PELICAN BRIEF. While KING OF TORTS still doesn't quite measure up, it is incredibly good.

What makes THE KING OF TORTS so good is the conceptual elements fans have grown to love about Grisham's thirllers: an underdog young attorney, a mysterious and clandestine protagonist, greasy "ambulance-chasing" attorneys and unscrupulous corporations. In the end, as always, it's all about the dollar.

Our "hero" in this thriller is J. Clay Carter II, a low-paid public defender in Washington, D.C. Clay has a well-to-do fiancée, Rebecca Van Horn who, along with her pugnacious mother and father continually nettle Clay to take a more lucrative job. His future in-laws are everything Clay despises. When he wontonly rejects Mr. Van Horn's offer of a corporate position making more than twice his PD pay, Rebecca dumps him for an geeky Ivy Leaguer.

Concurrent with his personal life heading south, Clay has just been ambushed into handling the defense of Tequila Watson, a young black man who shot a friend named "Pumpkin" (lively names). Although totally unmoved, Clay is intrigued as to why Tequila can't remember killing Pumpkin. It's as though his mind has been washed away...with drugs, Clay suspects. After issuing subpoenas for all the medical files from the street-tough drug rehabilitation center where Tequila was being treated, Clay gets the call of his young life. As Grisham describes him, "the man in black." Clay meets the man in black, Max Pace, an ex-lawyer cum "fireman," hired to solve problems on behalf of a variety of unnamed companies. His current "project" is on behalf of a major pharmaceutical company, which has just pulled the plug on a bad drug...a drug that has the side effects of making ex-addicts kill for no apparent reason. Pace's job for Clay? Offer the victims' families large settlements NOT to pursue any potential investigation or legal action. For this, Clay will receive a cool $15 million. Clay takes an extremely short moment and decides that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Why, he would be foolish to turn it down, wouldn't he?

Sure to his word, Max makes Clay a millionaire with a few short weeks of work. And, to add pleasure to ecstasy, Max has another, much larger "deal" for Clay. This deal involves another bad drug but this time, Clay gets to play the mass tort game. This, all from "tips" provided by the mysterious Max Pace. As Clay's new lawsuit takes form, he lands thousands of class-action suits and is dubbed by the major media "The King of Torts." As the pitiful pharmaceutical company decides to settle with Clay and his newly minted legal bretheren, Clay is two-for-two, only this time, his take isn't $15 million; it's $100 million! Like taking candy from a baby. Clay believes he's this good and here comes the element creating problems for most, greed.

As Clay acquires a yacht (for his father), a private plane, an island retreat and a trophy girlfriend, he burns through his new found wealth at an astonishing pace both for pleasure and in funding his next legal bonanza. But, like Mitch McDeere, Grisham's protagonist in THE FIRM, Clay soon learns that his newly acquired riches come with a price he can't afford to pay.

Grisham's glimpse into the world of mass tort attorneys is poignant and timely. How many commercials do we see on television from those soliciting our aches, pains, and more frighteningly, our health. The multi-million dollar advertising campaigns they use to attract clients and the huge sums they extract from big corporations are astonishing albeit fetid.

Unlike many of the Hollywood stories, not all mass tort actions have "happy" endings. In some cases, attornys undeservingly obtain riches simply because the defendant corporation believes it can spend less to settle than to litigate. At some surreal level, this crack in our legal system is one that is uncomfortable at best; horrifying at worst. In many cases, good, well-intentioned companies are forced into bankruptcy and the victims, who suffered the most, are left with little after attorney's fees.

Grisham sets a good pace for this storyline and develops the characters quite well. The only problem I saw with THE KING OF TORTS is, having set up strong characters and revealed the conspiracy, Grisham spins the story to a condensed close. While this glimpse of the Grisham of old is encouraging, the sprial down to climax was a return to the recent past. This doesn't spoil the book, as a whole, but it does bring the awestruck level down to solid.

A good book, a fun read. I hope this is only peek into Grisham's future direction. Maybe, just maybe, we'll see another PELICAN BRIEF in the making.

I was hugely disappointed with this book. I had read a few of Grisham's early books a number of years ago which I enjoyed and recently thought that The King of Torts would be the sort of thing I needed for the beach. Boy, was I wrong.

Where Grisham's earlier work (such as The Firm, The Client and The Pelican Brief) were fast paced legal thrillers with nice plot twists, The King of Torts is a moderately paced story about a greedy lawyer with no plot twist. I kept waiting for something to happen - and it never did. Talk about feeling cheated.

I'm not sure that Grisham tried very hard with this book. I get the impression that he belted it out rather quickly. He certainly doesn't seem to have spent as much time developing the plot as with his earlier books. Here the main character (Clay Carter) has a major lawsuit handed to him on a plate by the mysterious Max Price. And then when Max Price has served his purpose of short circuiting the plot, he simply drops out of the picture.

Why not have the main character do his own investigation to find the case? Why not have Max Price be an old friend of his estranged father or somehow linked to another character in the story? In fact, why not make more of Clay's father as a character. Why not make more of Clay's relationship with his girlfriend? There are plenty of opportunities for Grisham to make this story more complex and interesting but he seems to have missed them all. Not particularly satisfying.

Even at his best Grisham is a rather formulaic writer of pulp fiction - but at least you know what you're going to get. Or at least, you should. What was so disappointing about this book is that I didn't get what I was expecting - a decent thriller with a plot twist to enjoy on the beach.

Perhaps the irony is that the The King of Torts is a story about a lawyer who gets greedy, doesn't worry about it and then takes the money and splits. What is actually going on is that the author and publisher are churning out pulp to a public that deserves better, not worrying about it before they take the money and split.

I am a long time fan of Grisham. I have read all of his law-based books. I have noticed a downward slide in his recent work. The earlier works have good plot twists and sometimes a surprise ending. Lately, the books have tended to end a little ambigiously or downright dull. This book is no exception. Good idea, neat plot line, but the character development is lacking. Some characters are developed and then set aside. When I finished this book last night, having stayed up late to do so, I was left with a strong sense of disappointment. Grisham fans beware. Not sure if I'd recommend this to anyone. Sorry.

It isn't exactly news to most Americans that lawyers can be a venal bunch of cads. Yet John Grisham pounds home his "message" with such forceful clarity, you would think he had just discovered Betsy Ross was a traitor.

Mysterious Max introduces Clay Carter, a youngish lawyer going nowhere, to the shadowy world of "mass torts". Mass torts are when a large group of consumers bring action against a corporation for a faulty product. One lawyer may represent thousands of citizens. The idea is to get the corporation to settle (without going to court). The payout is in millions; the lawyer skims his enormous fee off the top and frequently the consumers get only a pittance in a successful action.

Clay's greed goes into overdrive and he is sucked into this new world of big money. By the end of his first year at his new job he is worth ten million, proud owner of a Gulfstream V, a gorgeous girl to hang on his arm and spend his money, and a definite thirst for more. This is a precarious and pressure-filled universe just barely operating on the sunny side of the law. One misstep is disastrous.

Trouble is, the reader knows from the get go that Grisham is never in this world going to allow Clay to enjoy his misbegotten goodies. So we spend the whole book waiting for the other shoe to drop--and drop it does. Also given Mr. Grisham's former profession and his outlandish success at his present occupation, I think he is standing on a fairly fragile pulpit. Nevertheless, Mr. Grisham, as always, is a master storyteller so it isn't a chore to follow Clay through his Pilgrim's Progress and back. But be warned, this isn't a mystery or general fiction; it's an admonitory tale.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

After waiting a few months to get my hands on a copy of this book, I was not disappointed in the least. The last John Grisham book I read was The Runaway Jury and there were parts in The King of Torts that reminded me of that book.
The book begins with Clay Carter, a lawyer working in the Office of the Public Defender (OPD). He is quickly assigned a case to provide legal counsel to a murderer. He tries to pawn the case off on another lawyer, but he's unsucessful in doing so. He soon gets a call from Max Pace, who seems to have the perfect case but all he needs is a good lawyer. Clay takes on the case and makes millions. Max happens to have more and more cases, each guaranteeing millions, but a what cost? After living in the lap of luxury, Clay realizes that it has all be at the expense of his clients.
This book was such a fast paced read. Whether you're a John Grisham fan or not, any suspense fan would love this book.

Recent law-based books by Grisham have focused on unsympathetic characters and shady legal practices. From reading the reviews I was hoping for a story similar to the rainmaker. Unfortunately, I faced another novel in the vein of The Summons The Brethren and The Partner.

He has written better.