The Appeal
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3.7 • 85 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Money can buy you anything. Even a verdict.
In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a chemical company is declared guilty of dumping toxic waste into a small town's water supply, causing the worst "cancer cluster" in history.
Their only avenue is to appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will either approve the verdict or reverse it.
The company's owner wants a seat on the Court. His political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mould him into a potential Supreme Court justice.
Their Supreme Court justice.
And unless their scheme is exposed, the polluters will make a clean escape.
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'A master at the art of deft characterisation and the skilful delivery of hair-raising crescendos. . .' Irish Independent
'John Grisham is the master of legal fiction' Jodi Picoult
'The best thriller writer alive!' Ken Follett
'John Grisham has perfected the art of cooking up convincing, fast-paced thrillers' The Telegraph
'Grisham is a superb and instinctive storyteller' The Times
'Grisham's storytelling genius reminds us that when it comes to legal drama, the master is in a league of his own' Daily Record
'When Grisham gets in the courtroom he lets rip, drawing scenes so real they are not just alive, they are pulsating' Mirror
'A giant of the thriller genre!' TimeOut
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Mississippi jury returns a $41-million verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping carcinogenic waste into a small town's water supply. The company's ruthless billionaire CEO is thwarted and the good guys (a courageous young woman who lost her husband and child and her two lawyers who've gone half a million dollars in debt preparing her case) receives its just reward. This sounds like the end of a Grisham legal thriller, but instead it's the beginning of a book-length lesson in how greed and big business have corrupted our electoral and judicial systems. Grisham's characters are over-the-top. The CEO and the other equally overdone villains his venal trophy wife, a self-serving senator and a pair of smarmy political fixers as well as the unbelievably good-hearted, self-sacrificing lawyers and an honorable state judge, are one dimensional. Michael Beck, with his natural Southern drawl, does a fine job of adding credibility and nuance to the large cast. But his efforts are for naught. In fact, the more he makes us feel for these characters, the less apt we are to be satisfied with the sourball moral of Grisham's downbeat discourse. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (reviewed online).
Customer Reviews
Ingenious
Was so taken by this story that I was convinced every detail happened for real. The way facts , brief episodes of events and political and ethical issues are waved into a winning recipes is remarkable. And the characters are not neglected. Described in a personal and effective style they are all part of the journey of this story. Clever as always.
Classic Grisham
Southern states, the court room, big corporations and a few small guys. Shame the bad guy won. But good read
The Appeal
Utterly John Grisham!!!