The Runaway JuryJohn Grisham1996Grisham throws the readers straight into the midst of a jury selection process. As we struggle to decode the legal jargon ricocheting off the walls of the courtroom, we are put in the shoes of the jury; ordinary lay people who have little or no knowledge of the law. Except for one particular Nicholas Easter, that is! Nicholas is the secret rebel leader among the jury who is edging the jury towards a particular verdict, which we can never guess right till the end!The novel provides us with a rare insight into the dark world of the men in black – lawyers – which ironically resembles the abyss of the criminal universe. While lawyers are not directly involved in any criminal dealings, they hire companies to tamper with the jury selection process. The boss of one such company is the shady Ranklin Fitch. He is hired by a tobacco conglomerate which is being sued by the widow of a man who died as a consequence of smoking heavily for 30 years. A verdict in favour of the plaintiff would open the floodgates for endless law suits against the tobacco companies; something which the billionaire owners in the tobacco industry are doing all they can to prevent. Fitch is involved in an intriguing mind game with an enigmatic lady, only known by the name, Marlee. She gives him occasional calls and tells him exactly how the jury members will behave in court. To his horror, Fitch discovers that her words ring true in court and he scrambles to plug the gap between Marlee and the jury. He realizes that someone within the jury is connected to Marlee. As the plaintiff lawyers and the defence lawyers present their witnesses over a period of 4 weeks, the jury’s opinion swings like a pendulum. Some wonderful arguments and court scenes unfold as the novel progresses. One particular standout scene would be the excellent cross questions by plaintiff lawyer Wendall Rohr on Jankle as his abuse theory is torn to shreds. Jankle’s theory claims that cigarettes are harmful only if abused; he quotes 40 sticks and above as abusing cigarettes. Rohr tears into this argument by asking why cigarette packets do not specify thisThe case surfaces several social issues. One of the jury members is Herman Grimes, a blind. He is initially refused a place in the jury because of his handicap. He questions the rationale of this and the judge panders to his request. While the law does not explicitly allow discrimination against the physically handicapped, it has various loopholes that are brilliantly exploited by Fitch and his “goons.” Another sad fact in the law is the sole focus of the trial lawyers like Rohr to gain money through law suits; they use clients as pawns in their relentless pursuit of getting rich. If trial lawyers are intent of getting rich, then the defence lawyers like Cable are just as intent on staying rich. Cable brutally cross-examines Krigler, a plaintiff witness, just to tarnish his reputation and discredit his evidence. The author has to be given credit for keeping the flow of the novel going despite the fact that it involves a lengthy case which is filled with technicalities. He manages to explain the hard Science behind smoking in a palatable manner. He even succeeds in adding humour using the technical terms themselves; at one junction he says, “after the thoughtful discourse of the ravages of tobacco smoke, it is time to move to the next compounds of medical interest: irritants.” Simple commentary such as this, along with truly comic scenes contrives the book into a very entertaining read. One particularly memorable scene of hilarity would be the episode in which the jury recites the pledge, much to the amazement of everyone in court! Imaginative use of language is scene in examples such as “the liquor loosened their tongues and the bitterness began to ooze forward.” Short dialogue and interspersing of character thoughts are used to highlight the quick thinking of Marlee and Fitch in their classic negotiation for a prize. Despite the writer’s strengths, the novel is let down by several plot loopholes. The ways in which certain jury members get bumped off the jury are difficult to believe. Fitch’s portrayal as an all-knowing and powerful kingmaker is undermined by his struggle to cope with Marlee, a simple girl with hardly any political or financial backing. The ending of the novel is flat and the readers are not able to relate to the protagonists. Just like the title, the ending is a runaway one, which may not please everyone.
The Runaway Jury by John GrishamThe Runaway Jury by John Grisham draws you into a story of power. While the widow of a man who was killed by lung cancer, after smoking for most of his life, is suing a tobacco company, the reader finds out that this is not a normal trial case. Usually the side with the most votes gets their verdict, but now there is a single powerful person who controls all of it. The widow’s lawyer is named Mr. Rohr. He is trying to make it big because he knows if he wins this trial there are many more smokers with lung cancer out there for him to have his own choice of trials.The tobacco company’s lawyer is Durwood Cable, but he isn’t really talked about too much. The main person who fights for the tobacco company the most is Rankin Fitch. He is a devious person who has had many cases like this before. “So far he is 8-0.” He has helped win cases like this before usually by using corrupt and illegal ways. He is mostly unknown to everyone else in the world, except for the rich tobacco companies who need help in winning a case. He doesn’t directly get involved in the courtroom, but what he does outside of it greatly affects the outcome. He prefers not to be known, and he lets the companies' lawyers take care of the talking.The story takes place mostly in the courtroom. During the beginning of the trial a mysterious woman shows up. She shows Fitch that she can control the jury and its verdict. When she causes 2 members of the jury to be removed, Fitch becomes interested in who this mysterious woman is. He tries to figure out who she is, but she is always one step ahead of him. The main character of the novel is Nicholas Easter. He is chosen as one of the jurors. While they were choosing the jury, they started to look around and find out information on the potential jurors. They don’t find out much about Nicholas. He and the mysterious woman know each other very well. Everyone seems to like Nicholas the most. Even though he isn’t chosen as their leader, the jurors treat him like he is. Also the judge has taken a liking to him. He went to college to become a lawyer, but he dropped out early. He uses the knowledge he gained there to understand what is going on in the courtroom and also to persuade the other jurors to do what he says. Eventually Fitch catches on to what Nicholas and the mysterious woman are doing and tries to get them to sway to the tobacco company’s side. Fitch digs into both of their pasts and almost finds out who they both are.Even though this story is fictional John Grisham makes you feel as if you had experienced it before.. This book makes you wonder what you would have done if you were Nicholas and which side you would have chosen.One of the main themes of The Runaway Jury is power and its corruption. In the story power is achieved through wealth which can be used to influence or pay anyone off. This is primarily the tobacco company. They use their money to carry out schemes to influence and sway the votes of jurors and their families. This book shows how deception and betrayal are everywhere, including the people who are supposed to fight for justice.
What do You think about The Runaway Jury (2006)?
I enjoyed the concept of this novel. The main event is a trial between a shady group of lawyers trying to take down big Tobacco with a lawsuit, and the even shadier lawyers representing the tobacco companies. Nicholas Easter is on the jury and he informs the tobacco group that he could send a verdict their way for a price. Working through his girlfriend, he shows signs that he could hand them a verdict, and manipulates much of the trial.The concept was good, but this novel more than stretches the realm of believability in many ways. It's just not reasonable to believe that Easter could have done the things that he did. I did enjoy some of the details of the novel, such as the intense selection process and amount of time and money spent analyzing the potential jury members. I have never been a big fan of John Grisham as a writer, and his prose in this novel does nothing to change my mind about it. The best I can say about Grisham is that he sometimes has entertaining plots. I also thought the swerve at the end was good even though I knew it was coming after having watched the movie. This is a mixed bag, but better than most Grisham novels I have read.Carl Alves - author of Blood Street
—Carl Alves
Runway Jury, is the more traditional Grisham, but a nifty suspense-filled story. I really enjoyed it. Lawyers will hate it, as it portrays them as terrible blood-sucking-win-at-any-cost malevolent characters. Fortunately, in this novel they get their due. In this novel Grisham dissects the tobacco industry. Given the absolutely stunning amount of money involved in the recent class action suits against the tobacco companies, Grisham starts with the assumption, a quite reasonable one, that the industry lawyers will stop at nothing to prevent a decision going against them and they set aside a huge slush fund to pay for all sorts of dirty tricks. Someone else decides to manipulate the jury results to their own profit (there’s a not unpredictable link to the anit-smokers involved, but what they do with the money is really nifty even if I didn’t quite understand how they did it). Soon the corporate lawyers are being sucked into a scheme they can’t control but think they might be able to manipulate. In the meantime they are sublty, and not so secretly, attempting to influence the jurors to their way of thinking. Grisham knows how to write courtroom drama and this book has some of his best.
—Eric_W
My 5th Grisham book! The plot held my interest from beginning to end, and was very fast paced. I had seen the movie a while back starring John Cusack, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, and Rachel Weisz, and the book had kind of the same premise but only the book is about a lawsuit of a Tobacco company, and in the movie it's a gun manufacturer.Some parts of the book were complicated and hard to follow but it still held my interest wondering what would happen next. Highly recommended to anybody who likes a good legal thriller.
—Corey Tardif
