The Appeal - John Grisham

I have been reading and enjoying John Grisham novels for a long time and I always like his tense stories and courtroom dramas. Therefore I was eagerly anticipating his latest offering 'The Appeal', which after reading, I feel ranks alongside some of his best. The Appeal is set in the state of Mississippi and centres on a legal action against the Krane Chemical Corporation. The company is accused of causing many cases of cancer through illegally dumping toxic waste. One case makes it to court and the plaintiff is Jeanette Baker who is represented by her lawyers Wes and Mary Grace Paynton. The case has been painful and expensive, but the joy when the jury ...  Read the complete review

The Appeal is John Grisham's twenty first novel. It is also his first fictional legal novel in three years, following on from The Innocent Man (which was admittedly excellent) and Playing For Pizza (which really wasn't). I am a big Grisham fan, having read the majority of his books to date, and I was therefore eager to get my hands on what was, at the time, his latest book. The plot to this book centres around a lawsuit brought by a woman called Jeannette Baker against a multi billion dollar company called Krane Chemical for negligently causing the deaths of her husband and son through allowing chemicals to seep into the town of Bowmore's water supply. ...  Read the complete review

The Appeal saw a return from John Grisham to the legal side of fiction, after a break for two books, 'Playing For Pizza', about American Football in Italy, and 'The Innocent Man', a true story. The Appeal combines some of his wonderful plot development with some excellent courtroom scenes, and is an excellent novel in so many ways. The book kicks off by giving us the multi-million settlement for Jeanette Baker against Krane Chemical Company, who the jury in the town of Jackson, Mississippi have found to be liable for the deaths of Jeanette's husband and son to cancer from the toxic waste the company dumped in the county's water supply. This would ...  Read the complete review

I've given John Grisham's recent books something of a mixed reception. Some have been filled with his trademark fast, thrilling plots; others have plodded along slower than an asthmatic dinosaur, inducing a state of near terminal boredom in the reader. Whilst not his best book The Appeal - loudly trumpeted as Grisham's first legal thriller for three years - marks a return to form. The plot has a rather interesting slant, in that it begins where most of Grisham's previous books have left off - the verdict against a giant chemical company accused of causing death through the dumping of toxic waste. For once, we're not witnessing the main trial with the usual ...  Read the complete review

Mary Grace & Wes Payton have just secured the greatest deal of their legal careers; they have won a multi million dollar settlement on behalf of their client against a huge billion dollar company - Krane Chemical. Brilliant outcome? Well you would think so, but although this sounds like the ideal ending of a long, tiring court case, of course, it's just the beginning of the story as the defendant unsurprisingly takes the case to appeal. What follows is a journey through the Mississippi court system, but not as clear cut as you would hope! Krane chemical's shares are hit hard by the verdict, but the owner, Carl Trudeau has his finger in a lot of pies and ...  Read the complete review