La Quinta Cove

Book reviews scored high on the recent website survey.  Here’s the first in a series of quick reviews by our Anonymous Reviewer.  Feel free to add your comments to the review.  Thanks AR for the review.

“The Appeal”  by John Grisham

Another legal thriller by Grisham, done in his concise, great style. The story involves a David and Goliath contest between a small town law firm and a team of big city lawyers representing a large company whose long term dumping of toxic waste into a nearby ravine has polluted the groundwater leaching into the town’s aquifer.

A jury finds for the family represented by the local Payton law firm in the death of two members, but the decision will be appealed to the State Supreme Court.  If the Court upholds the jury’s verdict and damage award, there will be a flood of other cases to be filed.  The Company, rather than admit its guilt in probably causing many deaths and serious illnesses in the community, chooses to fight in a different way.  They set out to place a new judge on the Court who will vote the way they want and overturn the jury’s verdict on a Court split 5/4.

The process involves manipulating both their young and inexperienced attorney of choice and using many dirty campaigning and fund raising methods to control the outcome of the electron.  It demonstrates all the unsavory aspects of politics and power gone wrong, but it was a good read and a lesson in politics.