Booking with Simon: Grisham

Showing posts with label Grisham. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

The Last Juror

By John Grisham

I had such a run on John Grisham novels during the mid-2000s and finished at that point with this one. I've always enjoyed his writing and, almost despite that fact all his writing is stand alone, I've thoroughly enjoyed every novel he has written. The location of 'Ford County' is a recurring place that appears in multiple novels, and here we are again, in Ford County.

Synopsis

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colourful weekly newspapes, The Couny Time, went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23-year-old college drop-out, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper began to prosper.
The murderer, danny PAditt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton. Mississipp. The trail came to a startling and dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the juros if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
But in Mississippi in 1970, 'life' didn't necessarily mean 'life' and nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, and the retribution began.

Author

Other books by the author

A Time to Kill(1989)

The Firm (1991)

The Pelican Brief (1992)

The Client (1993)

The Chamber(1994)

The Rainmaker (1995)

The Runaway Jury(1996)

The Partner (1997)

The Street Lawyer (1998)

The Testament (1999)

The Brethren (2000)

A Painted House(2001)

Skipping Christmas (2001)

The Summons (2002)

The King of Torts (2003)

Bleachers(2003)

The Last Juror(2004)

The Broker(2005)

Playing for Pizza(2007)

The Appeal (2008)

The Associate(2009)

The Confession(2010)

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer(2010)

The Litigators(2011)

Theodore Boone: The Abduction(2011)

Calico Joe (2012)

The Racketeer (2012)

Theodore Boone: The Accused(2012)

Sycamore Row(2013)

Theodore Boone: The Activist(2013)

Gray Mountain(2014)

Theodore Boone: The Fugitive(2015)

Rogue Lawyer (2015)

Theodore Boone: The Scandal(2016)

The Whistler(2016)

Camino Island(2017)

The Rooster Bar (2017)

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Rogue Lawyer

By John Grisham

Another Grisham rollercoaster. When I read it, I thought it was great. Twisty-turny in the usual Grisham way. Being introduced to what, I think, will become a regular character. But I must confess, when I went to my book club a month later to talk about the books we read I could not remember a single thing about it. Perhaps that was because I didn't get chance to flick through the book just before the club started, perhaps it was because its now a month later and I'm only just getting to this write up. Either way, it appears that the characters and their adventures are nothing particularly outstanding, same old thriller. Good, very good. But memorable?

Synopsis

Sebastian Rudd takes the cases no one else wants: the drug-addled punk accused of murdering two girls; a crime loard on death row; a homeowner who shot at a SWAT team.

But the Arch Swanger case may be the one that breaks him.

Swanger is prime suspect in the abduction and presumed murder of 21-year-old Jilianna Kemp. When Swanger asks Sebastian to represent him, he lets Sebastian in on a terrible secret - one that will threaten everything Sebastian holds dear.

Author

Other books by the author

A Time to Kill(1989)

The Firm (1991)

The Pelican Brief (1992)

The Client (1993)

The Chamber(1994)

The Rainmaker (1995)

The Runaway Jury(1996)

The Partner (1997)

The Street Lawyer (1998)

The Testament (1999)

The Brethren (2000)

A Painted House(2001)

Skipping Christmas (2001)

The Summons (2002)

The King of Torts (2003)

Bleachers(2003)

The Last Juror(2004)

The Broker(2005)

Playing for Pizza(2007)

The Appeal (2008)

The Associate(2009)

The Confession(2010)

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer(2010)

The Litigators(2011)

Theodore Boone: The Abduction(2011)

Calico Joe (2012)

The Racketeer (2012)

Theodore Boone: The Accused(2012)

Sycamore Row(2013)

Theodore Boone: The Activist(2013)

Gray Mountain(2014)

Theodore Boone: The Fugitive(2015)

Rogue Lawyer (2015)

Theodore Boone: The Scandal(2016)

The Whistler(2016)

Camino Island(2017)

The Rooster Bar (2017)

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

The Street Lawyer

By John Grisham

One of Grisham's better books. It grabbed by the throat and never let go. I don't think I've read one of his like that since the early three; The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client. It was certainly great see his getting his form back.

Synopsis

Michael was in a hurry. He wa scrambling up the ladder at Drake and Sweeney, a giant Washington law firm. The money was good and getting better and the partnership was three years away. He was a raising star, with no time to waste, no time to stop, not time to toss a few coins into the cups of the panhandlers, no time for a conscience.

But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived, his assailant did not. Who was this homeless man? Michael did some digging and found a dirty secret and the secret involved Drake and Sweeney.

Soon Michael was in the street, a thief, on the run from the very dreamshe once valued above everything else...

Author

Other books by the author

A Time to Kill(1989)
The Firm (1991)
The Pelican Brief (1992)
The Client (1993)
The Chamber(1994)
The Rainmaker (1995)
The Runaway Jury(1996)
The Partner (1997)
The Street Lawyer (1998)
The Testament (1999)
The Brethren (2000)
A Painted House(2001)
Skipping Christmas (2001)
The Summons (2002)
The King of Torts (2003)
Bleachers(2003)
The Last Juror(2004)
The Broker(2005)
Playing for Pizza(2007)
The Appeal (2008)
The Associate(2009)
The Confession(2010)
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer(2010)
The Litigators(2011)
Theodore Boone: The Abduction(2011)
Calico Joe (2012)
The Racketeer (2012)
Theodore Boone: The Accused(2012)
Sycamore Row(2013)
Theodore Boone: The Activist(2013)
Gray Mountain(2014)
Theodore Boone: The Fugitive(2015)
Rogue Lawyer (2015)
Theodore Boone: The Scandal(2016)
The Whistler(2016)
Camino Island(2017)
The Rooster Bar (2017)

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Theodore Boone

By John Grisham

It's holiday time again. I must say, I love being a teacher. More time to read a book or two. Last week we had my son's parent/teacher meeting. He's doing well, thanks for asking, but he getting hung up on fantasy-fiction and needs to broaden his reading library. I've been meaning catch up on a little more Grisham and now is the time to do it. Theodore Boone is written for a younger audience and legal-fiction just might be a quality genre shift for a few books.

This is regular Grisham, on form, and I was delighted to read it. In fact, I may well get onto the other Theodore Boone books.

Synopsis

In the small city of Strattenburg, there are many lawyers, and though he's only thirteen years old, Theo Boone thinks he's one of them. He dreams of being a great lawyer, of a life in the courtroom. But Theo finds himself in court much sooner than expected when he is dragged into the middle of a sensational murder trial. A cold-blooded killer is about to go free, and only Theo knows the truth. The stakes are high, but Theo won't stop until justice is served.

Author

John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide. - Wikipedia

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (Theodore Boone, #1) (2010)
The Abduction (Theodore Boone, #2) (2010)
The Accused (Theodore Boone, #3) (2012)
The Activist (Theodore Boone, #4) (2013)
The Fugitive (Theodore Boone, #5) (2015)
The Scandal (Theodore Boone, #6) (2016)

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Racketeer

by John Grisham

John Grisham's The Firm brought me back to reading when I was in University.
I remember traveling an hour on a bus each way, off on Teaching Practice. I wasn't sleeping well because I couldn't get the whole experience out of my head. Learning groups, IEPs, planning, resource making, observations and so on swam around and around my head. I needed to do something about that. It was two-hours a day, every day, for 6 weeks. That's a lot of time that I could fill with reading.

Since then I've always kept pace with Grisham novels...until a few years ago. When I got the Racketeer out I scanned down the list of his books at the front. It seems I've got some catching up to do.

I enjoyed The Racketeer. It felt a little like The Partner lite. The Partner is by far my favourite Grisham novel. There just seemed to lack a bit of meat to the story. One I got to the end I read that Grisham did very little research, the story is clearly a work of fiction but it seemed that it had little basis in real case law. Perhaps there was a depth, a meatiness, that comes through a Grisham novel when the laws a accurate, the events are a little better researched.

Synopsis

Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered.Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five.Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s... Read More

Author

John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide. - Wikipedia

Here is the full list of Other books by the author but below is a short list of books I consider that are among his best.

Which are your favourite John Grisham novels?