Book Review: The Litigators

John Grisham has long been a favourite author, ever since Dave got me hooked on his novels at least ten years ago. It's almost guaranteed that I'll (eventually) buy his new books (when they're out in paperback, or even later, when they're flooding the charity shops and secondhand bookshops) and enjoy them immensely. That's precisely what happened with one of his more recently new ones: The Litigators(Kindle).

Grisham has a talent for writing good legal thrillers with humour and tension in equal measure. His ability to tell a good story is more than matched by his incisive descriptions of people, giving the measure of the man or woman in a few sentences. The reader is drawn in, wanting to turn the pages to follow the twists and turns of the story, urging on the underdog and cheering as justice is done.

The main character is David Zinc, a lawyer in a big firm with a big salary, who on the spur of the moment throws it all away. He snaps, flees the office, goes on a bender, and ends up in the offices of a 'boutique law firm' of two ambulance chasers on the verge of hitting the big time in a mass tort lawsuit.

The story follows the highs and lows of the lawyers, their families, their divorces, their opponents, with a whistle-stop guide to federal law and lawsuits. Throughout, the reader is left wondering can they pull it off, but you'll have to discover that for yourself.

Grisham's novels stay with you long after you've finished reading them. Just the other day I was looking at the spines of his books in a shop and was able to remember the basic story of each of them, no matter how long ago they had been read. This one is no different, and perhaps even one of the best he has written.