The King of Torts - Hardcover

Grisham, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0712670599 ISBN 13: 9780712670593

Publisher: Century, 2003

Synopsis

Reluctantly, Clay Carter takes on what seems to be the mundane case of a young man charged with a random street killing. But when digging into his client's background, he stumbles upon a horrendous conspiracy and finds himself in a situation that could make him the legal profession's king of torts.

About this title

Review:

John Grisham's The King of Torts demonstrates that his narrative skills remain as impeccable as ever. Grisham knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to transfixing the reader.

Within the high-powered milieu of the public defender's office in Washington DC, Grisham's protagonist is an ambitious young lawyer who finds himself saddled with what appears to be a nothing case: one of a wave of crack cocaine killings that are the bane of the capital. But as Clay Carter investigates, he finds that something more than a random street murder is involved here and a massive conspiracy becomes apparent. The stakes are suddenly very high indeed.

If the skulduggery here (involving one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world) is a tad familiar, Grisham remains nonpareil when it comes to delivering a smoothly engineered plot. A fresh touch is Carter's desire to break free from the routine cases he has been handling: this quickly becomes a case of beware what you wish for. Another innovative touch is the refusal to tie up the narrative in the expected ways: The King of Torts has much more verisimilitude in this area than most legal thrillers. One more thing, Grisham's prose now has a sardonic, satirical quality that suggests the Tom Wolfe of Bonfire of the Vanities. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

No manuscript available, but the publishers describe The King of Torts as a legal thriller set in Washington DC. An aspiring young lawyer in the Public Defender's office is assigned a case that appears to be nothing more than one of many crack cocaine murders in the capital. However, he delves deeper and begins to uncover a conspiracy that is bigger than him and perhaps bigger than the justice system itself. It's something of a truism to say that Grisham's inspiration has been fitful of late, but his sales rarely falter; The King of Torts will no doubt get the punters forking out their shekels.

About this edition

• Publisher: Century
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0712670599
• ISBN 13: 9780712670593
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376