The Runaway Jury - John Grisham

Well, forgive me for jumping up and down on my bed in a fit of joy. I have finally finished reading this book. It is not particularly long, nor particularly difficult to read. I had already seen the film before reading, so should have known where it was leading. But if I told you when I had started reading it, most of you would probably laugh. I guess that's why I am taking so long to keep up with reading people's reviews, though. I am such a hopelessly slow reader I will be lucky to have read twenty books by the time I die. Okay, slight exaggeration there, but basically it can take me a matter of months to get through a book, so often by the time I have reached the end, ...  Read the complete review

John Grisham is a graduate of Mississippi State University and Ole Miss Law School. After completing his law degree in 1981 he practiced law for about 10 years, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1983 and served until 1990. John Grisham has givrn up his law practice to write full-time. He began writing in 1984, and three years later finished his first novel, A Time To Kill, published by Wynwood Press in June 1988. He is the best-selling author of A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client and Runaway Jury. He lives with his wife and their two children on a farm in Oxford, ...  Read the complete review

The Runaway Jury is the 7th novel from the award winning legal thriller author John Grisham. It has been made into a blockbusting film as have his previous 6 novels. The Plot In Mississippi, a widow is suing a tobacco company because her husband died of lung cancer. In the preliminaries before the case starts, we see the jury being selected. The tobacco company hires the services of the great Rankin Fitch, jury selector extraordinaire, who will virtually guarantee them a favourable jury unlikely to conclude the tobacco company is liable for the death. With his big guns and highly trained entourage, Fitch starts eliminating potential jurors from the ...  Read the complete review

A huge trial, the widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer against the big four, the four largest tobacco companies in the United States and hence the world. A trial involving millions and millions of dollars and one which could well set the scene for many future litigations, if the tobacco companies win this, they'll win them all and vice versa; if the smokers widow wins, there are millions of Americans who've suffered from smoking and they can all sue. A jury, picked painstakingly, slowly agreed upon by the lawyers representing both sides and satisfying neither and then, as the trial begins, it appears that the jury can be manipulated, there is someone ...  Read the complete review

The Runaway Jury is a very interesting read, if a little far fetched. The story is very enjoyable and centres on a tobacco trial which has high media interest. The main characters, as you would expect, are the jury members. You get to know the characters very well and can relate to them by the end of the book. The four major tobacco companies in America obviously have the most to lose should the decision go against the tobacco industry. They have a large fund of money set aside to cover such circumstances and decide to make it available for all legal battles. The man they employ, Rankin Fitch, will use all kinds of underhand tactics to keep decisions going ...  Read the complete review