The Litigators Hardcover – Big Book, October 25, 2011

Captured my attention one first page with variety of unexpected twist. Have always been pleased with Graham writings. Highly recommend reading .

Nice easy read......great characters. You identify with them right away. Subtle parallel story enhanced the story and made for a good ending !

Grisham is the best at his game. Loved this one. It was a departure from the murder/crime ones he usually writes like A Time To Kill or A Time For Mercy (I loved those too). Grisham showed his mastery of the legal system and writing by making a class action lawsuit a page turning novel. Hope he writes another lehso thriller involving civil cases (outside of Sycamore Row).

Street Law has its own rules; the attorneys "chase ambulances," process no-fault divorces and literally run after cases no higher-class law firm would ever consider. Street Law litigators are often sole practitioners; Grisham fashioned a two-guy office and then added a Harvard grad making it three semi-desperate counselors.I enjoyed this book on many levels. I work in Chicago for Litigators, not the low-level "boutique" firm of Finley and Figg but a mid-sized prominent defense firm which gave me an advantage in terms of legalese and the procedures. I could not identify with Oscar Finn, the aging attorney, who felt he wasted the last 30 years with this crummy practice or Wally Figg, a drunk who is chasing the big pot of gold and will pull almost anything to sign up a client. However, I have met many David Zinc's, the burnt-out bright attorney who knows he cannot stand one more 100 hour week of entering billable hours for his cold-hearted large firm.Grisham recaptured the heroes of his earlier books in David Zinc. We first meet David when he is enduring a full-fledged panic attack, as he is about to begin another day at the Rogan Rothberg 600 attorney firm. After losing all control, David spends the rest of his soul-searching day in a neighborhood bar and later he drunkenly washes up at the doorstep of Finn & Figg. David teams up with these low-level guys and begins to learn their ropes and seizes the moment. He is a good man with a beautiful, smart wife, Helen. He does not cut corners and uses his own money to help and investigate a horrific injury to a Burmese boy. In this case, Grisham aims his anger at American toy companies who have bought Chinese toy manufacturers that apparently manufacture lead poisoning rather than safe toys.Suffice it to say, Grisham was able to neatly include the mistreatment of illegal immigrants, the hypocrisy of the drug companies (Varrick Drugs is the chief antagonist), the frauds who will try anything to cheat someone out of money, product liability law and the real victims. The main culprit is mass tort litigation where the victims remain victims while the plaintiff and defense lawyers reap the millions. Grisham slows David's progress but the reader knows that this Harvard grad is really smart and when he can understand the particular law, Federal court and how to litigate, we know he will be a star. Through it all, David is a good friend and a reputable attorney (despite Wally's influence). One of my favorite scenes takes place when David explains his new career to his father, a judge in Minnesota. Expecting the judge to be of no use or patience, his response is not volatile. Later, we learn his father taught David the moralities of the court decisions.Grisham has crafted an entertaining book, once again. Some parts were totally unbelievable and he gave the reader almost every character imaginable: the slovenly ex-wife looking to score big in a lawsuit, the beautiful, sexy defense attorney (Nadine) for the drug company, sarcastic but loyal secretary (Rochelle) to Oscar and Wally, the bartender who has heard it all (Abner's), and of course, the insurance companies who will continue to profit win or lose. The reader prevails in this clever tale; it's a fun page-turner that really does not insult one's intelligence. Setting the story in Chicago, of course, adds to the lack of civility and no holes barred zingers. However, he had several errors regarding Chicago areas and neighborhoods. These would be quite obvious to a Chicagoan. He needed a native Chicago editor! 4.5 stars

John Grisham used to grab me at 'Hello' and I read until my eyes would stay open no longer. The Litigators put me to sleep.Yes, the characters are bumbling and sometimes funny. The young lawyer, so worn out and disillusioned that he makes a break for it and steps away from the big law firm is a sympathetic character. We want him to do well.Whether Oscar, Wally or Rochelle do well is not really the reader's concern. Do they deserve to do well? Are they people we would like? Probably not.This is an 'okay' book. Not fabulous like many vintage Grisham books are. Is it worth the high Kindle price? Absolutely 'NO'!!! For this one, you can wait till you can buy it in soft back or get it at the library. It's not worth the asking price just to be able to say you have read the latest Grisham.Give it a year or two and then, one day when you have nothing else to do, pick this up somewhere at a second hand bookstore. Believe me, there will be plenty of copies available and you'll get to read it without breaking the bank.

John Grisham's "The Litigators" is an interesting, well-written novel that reveals many of the facets of mass tort law suits, particularly how law firms that specialize in this area and how large corporations that are often the target of such suits handle these cases. It is in the category of what I think of as the "new" Grisham, rather than the "old" Grisham, that is it is not a legal thriller "The Client", "The Pelican Brief", "The Firm", "A Time To Kill", etc., but a mainstream novel about the law.David Zinc, a thirty-one-year-old lawyer, works for a large, prestigious Chicago firm. He puts in very long hours laboring over very boring legal issues, but he earns a very nice salary he and his wife don't have much time to spend. One day, he burns out. He cannot make himself walk through the door to his office building. He ends up getting drunk and, through a fluke, hooking up with Finley and Figg. Sixty-some-year-old Oscar Finley and forty-some-year-old Wally Figg are the sole partner in what they call a "boutique firm". For the most part, they hustle injury cases. Wally dreams of finding and winning the one big case that will make him rich. Oscar dreams of dumping his wife and having enough money to live on. Their legal secretary/office manager Rochelle Gibson dreams of being able to move out of her squalid apartment.When Wally hears about a mass tort focusing on a drug that is believed to have severe side effects, he believes he's found the big one. He pulls the firm into the venture and joins up a famous mass tort specialist. Meanwhile, while helping with the mass tort, David finds quietly works on uncovering the manufacturer of a toy that has ruined the physical and mental health of a child and strained his family economically and physically. Grisham describes the machinations of the pharmaceutical that is the target of the suit, the famed mass tort specialist, the clients, and the "boutique firm", as well as the impact lead poisoning has had on a family.Grisham's characters are colorful; Zinc is the decent man that is found in almost every Grisham legal novel, and he has avoided the simplistic "good guys/bad guys" stereotypes that have appeared in some of his work. I do miss the excitement of those old, early thrillers, though.