Review: The King of Torts

Tequila Watson is due to be prosecuted for the murder of Ramon Pumphrey, the victim on an unprovoked and seemingly motiveless shooting, and Clay Carter, a young lawyer from the Office of the Public Defender, gets landed with the defence case. There is no doubt that Watson did it, there are witnesses and even he himself admits to the deed, although his only reason seems to be a puzzling "I just felt like it."

Then, a mysterious representative of a large pharmaceutical company comes to Clay with a shocking secret. Evidently, a new wonderdrug, "Tarvan" which cures drug addiction after a period of prolonged use has some horrific side-effects that the company is prepared to pay millions to keep quite, and Clay was in the right case at the right time. This is a deal that could make all his dreams come true, and possibly even entice Rebecca the woman he loves back to him again, at the same time as making him the legal-world’s newest king of torts…

Now, this is my first Grisham book, so after hearing that his latest are disappointing, I came to it with caution. And soon found all my fears dispelled into the mist. Grisham seems to me to be just another of several mega-bestselling authors that have unjustly fallen victim to their own popularity. I found The King of Torts to be an absolutely marvellous tale of the cogs of law, thrilling, fast, and authentic, which carried me with it late into the night.

His characters are a well-drawn, realistic lot, and their relationships are interesting. The plot in itself may not be full of action, but the book is nonetheless a pageturner, due in no small part to Grisham’s wonderful writing style that is just so darn easy to read, without descending into Patterson-esque simplicity. I found myself carried along swiftly by it, floating along as if on a lexical cushion of air. It’s a pageturner not because its exceptionally exciting ("interesting" is more the word) but because the prospect of reading another few pages is just so easy.

This is a fascinating book or several reasons. The legal-workings. Clay’s spectacular and cheering rise to the highest echelons of mass-tort lawyers. And, then, his even more fascinating fall from grace, which therein lies the none-too-subtle lesson of this morality tale.

Grisham is a fantastic storyteller, and, like other popular writers who are supposedly going downhill, I found no evidence of that here. I suppose it might just be that over-exposure to his books dulls them a little, but at first glance this seems to me to be yet another writer the reports of whose decline have been greatly exaggerated.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Fiona Walker

Book Review: The King of Torts