King of Torts, The

Inhoud

The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is just another of the many senseless murders that hit D.C. every week.
As he digs into the background of his client, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible to believe. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of a complex case against one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, looking at the kind of enormous settlement that would totally change his life - that would make him, almost overnight, the legal profession's newest king of torts...

Bespreking

Strong subject, weak package

Clay Carter has been a public defender for too long now, and wants to move ahead fast. When he gets offered an inside tip concerning a big and easy tort case, Clay does not hesitate for long and jumps on the opportunity. The case is about a young man charged with a random street killing, but seems to reach much farther than this when connected to the fact that D.C. is suddenly flooded by many cases of senseless murders. Without much effort Clay succeeds in settling with a big pharmaceutical company that sold a faulty medicine to help drug addicts. With a taste of the big money in his mouth, he finds it increasingly easy to neglect his principles. And why shouldn�t he? He now has the best car, a beautiful girlfriend and most importantly some highly influential friends that can tell him where the money is to be found. But all this comes with a price.

With King of Torts John Grisham returns to the genre that made him famous: the legal thriller. Indeed, the story of Clay resembles in more that one respect Grisham�s mega success of The Firm. The ultra quick rise to fame and fortune of a young lawyer is an obvious link to both books. Nevertheless the undercurrent in King of Torts makes it less of a pure thriller and more a social manifest. It is clear that Grisham has grown a lot since his second novel. More and more he wants to share important messages and criticize the American legal system. Although the subject is indeed very relevant, it remains doubtful if the format of a legal thriller is the best way to share his concerns with the broader audience. Indeed, the initial setting already reveals a lot on how the story will end. Not a lot of effort has been invested in supplying a strong twist towards the end, with the result that the story keeps repeating itself until all pages seem to be filled. Without much ado the final chapter arrives and leaves the reader with an ending that is less than mediocre.