Author : John Grisham
Genre : Legal Thriller
Publisher : Random House
Pages : 400
Rating : 2/5
I recently read The Rainmaker and loved it. So, in search of a change of pace and a better read after the disappointing “The Wife Between Us”, I picked up The Litigators. Unfortunately for me – this book disappointed also – that’s two in a row!
David Zinc, a young but jaded attorney walks away from his well-paid job at a fancy law firm and ends up at a “boutique” law firm. Or at least that’s the way Finley & Figg describe themselves. The 2 man law firm is into ambulance chasing and filing divorce cases. When Wally Figg gets wind of a class action lawsuit involving the drug Krayvoxx, the firm jumps on the bandwagon. Are the millions of a tort settlement about to fall into their laps?
The Litigators started well and I was quite enjoying myself. But the writing and the plot degraded as the book went on. There is very little plot, no twists and no raison d’être of this book. The prose is trite, curt and emotionless, like a description of events as read from a journal. It’s like Grisham got tired of fleshing out the details and just decided to end it as quickly as possible, as un-wordily as possible.
The characters are flat and not like-able, except maybe David. Unlike the fiery Rainmaker which had a young, earnest underdog of a lawyer trying to do the right thing, the characters in this book are just in pursuit of filthy lucre – not a great theme. David does bring some of the earnestness and the “goodness” but it’s too little too late.
60% into the book I started to skim. Then it went fast, thankfully.
