Several years ago, I read everything John Grisham wrote. I guess, though, burnout set in, and after I read The Brethren, I was done with Grisham. I liked The Brethen enough. I guess. I just can't say that I remember it very well. In any case, I was tired of legal thrillers. Other than An Innocent Man, which doesn't really count because it is a true story, after all, I haven't read a Grisham novel for well over ten years. And this was decent. But I'm thinking of stories like The Partner, The Firm, and The Pelican Brief. I might be suffering from memory loss - but the way I remember those stories is different than the way I think The King of Torts reads. I remember those first stories being intense and exciting. I remember that I couldn't stop reading because they were filled with clever plot twists. The King of Torts isn't a thriller like those first Grisham novels. J. Clay Carter II is a lowly public defender in Washington, D.C. But his luck is about to change. When Carter decides to take a generous but shady offer and start up his own shop, he finds himself in the midst of very large mass tort litigation cases, and he is probably in over his head. He's making millions, hiring paralegals and attorneys left and right and buying expensive boats, jets, homes. In fact, he's spending it with reckless abandon while his personal life is spinning wildly out of control. But Mr. Carter takes comfort as he becomes the newly crowned "King of Torts."Maybe this is why I didn't love it. It isn't the thriller I was expecting. But even more, I really detested torts in law school. Not because the reading wasn't interesting or even because they class discussions weren't engaging - they were. How can you not be interested in cases that include a dolt who saws off his fingers after ignoring clear and precise safety warnings placed all over his new saw and who then goes and sues the manufacturer anyway? It's a train wreck, and you can't turn away from it. But the sleaziness of such nonsense...I mean what lawyer takes a case like that...it just never sat right with me. However, these tort lawyers, they are something else; they are the epitome of every shark lawyer joke ever made. Very stock...I really don't believe every tort attorney is this low. And several do really good work for people who deserve compensation. Mr. Carter and his new pals are not doing such work.And as Mr. Carter slips further into the morass of mass tort litigation, he finds his moorings slipping right along with is personal life. I wanted to think more of Carter, but since I didn't really see what kind of guy he was before - he actually seemed like kind of a jerk from the beginning - I wasn't surprised to watch his fall. I think if Grisham wanted me to feel any sympathy for him, Carter needed to be more sympathetic from the start. Classic lack of character development.However, the story was engaging enough and the twist at the end was interesting, if a bit predictable, kind of. And I did appreciate the angle it took on mass tort litigation. Is it abusive even if a drug company manufactures a dangerous drug? Shouldn't lawyers know who they represent rather than file mass cases for thousands of individuals they have never met face to face? I'd never given it much thought, but I have now, and it doesn't sit quite right with me. It isn't my favorite Grisham, but it was good. And I'm now reading The Appeal, so...I guess I'm sort of on a Grisham kick.
I’ve never knew much about law cases, but John Grisham made me feel as if I was a lawyer in Washington, D.C. myself. Clay Carter, a lawyer for the firm OPD, is a man struggling to make money at the law firm he works at. “The beginning salary for an OPD lawyer was 36,000 dollars. The most senior lawyer, a frazzled of man of forty-three, earned 57,600 dollars and has been threatening to quit for nineteen years.” When given an unbelievable opportunity, the story tells about how he handles himself while being a mass tort lawyer.When Clay is working at OPD and is struggling to get money, his rich girlfriend, Rebecca Vanhorn, decides that she needs somebody with more money. Rebecca grew up with rich parents who always gave her what she wanted. When her parents put inside her head that she deserves better than Clay, she leaves him. The next day, a man named Max Pace calls Clay with a great opportunity. Max Pace is a man with many names. Max is the only name mentioned in the book. He calls Clay about the murder case he is handling and Clay’s client, Tequila Watson. Tequila is a nineteen-year-old boy who is in jail for murder. He is a kid that was on drugs, but had no other problems. In fact, the rehabilitation center director says, “But the kid was pretty tame, no history of violence.” Max tells Clay that the prescription drug that Tequila was taking, Tarvan, has a defect. It makes one percent of the people who take it want to kill somebody. Max says that his client, the drug company that manufactured Tarvan, has destroyed all records and wants to settle quickly. Max hires Clay to find all the victims’ families, and make them his clients. Then Max’s clients would settle for any amount of money.Clay becomes rich over the Tarvan case and makes his own law firm. Max becomes his partner. Max has stolen records on a pill named Dyloft. Dyloft is a prescription drug used for arthritis, but it makes tumors in the bladder. Clay files for suit against the manufacturer of the pill, Ackerman Labs, immediately and has thousands of clients calling him.One theme of the book would be that no matter how rich you are, you should not let money go to your head. Clay makes millions of dollars and is always telling himself to not let the money go to his head. He ends up believing you have to spend money to make money. I liked this book because it is so much like real life. He makes commercials that are just like some of the ones we see on television at night. It is also very interesting about how much the pharmaceutical companies are willing to pay to keep a case from going to court, and how much the lawyers keep for themselves. This book shows greed and how it gets the best of people.One thing I did not like about this book was that at times, it would get boring. It was boring because of all the details that had to be given about the cases and all the stuff the lawyers had to do to prepare for them. Once they filed for suit is when the book started getting interesting again.Page Count: 470Genre: Realistic Fiction
What do You think about The King Of Torts (2005)?
I really don't know what I expected from this book: amazing action scenes, crazy unexpected twists, and a heart wrenching story with a great lesson. I got none of that. What I got was 400 pages of legal terms and a money crazed, horny lawyer. It was humorous at some points and the story really pulled me in to read more, but most of the time I was begging for the book to end. I really believe Grisham could have done better. I've heard so much hype about his books that I was glad that I finally got into one of his books. When I started reading it, I remembered why I didn't want to read his books. Clay was a good character and I believe that his character could have grown to be more and achieve more. To me Grisham cut Clay off at his knees and made him a steortypical money crazed lawyer. In the beginning his character was so intelligent with high hoped. By page 300 I could do nothing but pity him. The ending was not very fulfilling. Mostly it was cowardly. I felt like there should have been some sort of justice somewhere. And what of Max Pace? No I was not happy with this book. I would love to give up on Grisham at this point, but I hae been advised that some of his other works are truly worth reading. This book however is not. This book just wasn't for me. It could have turned me on to an entire new world of literature, but in the end it failed me miserably. Maybe next time Grisham.....or not.
—Valencia
OMG are you kidding me? The main character in this book is not likeable in the least. He made some pretty moronic choices that even I (no expert in law or investing) could see as potential disasters. He deserved the fate he got in the end, including living with a shallow, selfish woman who actually dumped him in the beginning of the book because her daddy told her to and only came sniffing around again when he made it big! How could he take her back? He didn't even give Ridley a chance to see if
—Trish
As a lover of legal thrillers, I try to read all of John Crisham's books. This book was really interesting and such a page turner from the very beginning: there is not any moment of boredom for readers, nor anything unconvincing! I got more and more intrigued as the story went on, I was constantly thinking about our main man - Clay Carter - even when I am not reading. The book introduced me to a new (and probably very miniscule (in terms of size) world) of mass tort lawyers and pharmaceutical industry: it is incredible It was a nice escape from my daily routine, and something to look forward to at the end of a long day. I would recommend it highly if you like feasible mystery and adventure but in a real world.
—Bolortuya
