CBR Bingo 14 – Holiday
This book was on the shelf on my AirBnb this past week when I really needed something, not very taxing, to read and my books were failing me.
I read this on vacation so if I liked it more than I might otherwise, blame that.
I picked this up, had no clue what it was going to be about, and loved every stupid second of it. The novel begins with a just expert consulting group group spying on a man who works in an electronics store. The make special note that he both neither smokes nor seems to care much about others smoking. It becomes clear early on that the novel will be focused on some kind of high-profile civil case where jury selection will be the difference success and failure.
As we move further along, we learn that the case is an unlawful death case against a tobacco company (it’s 1996). None of these cases, we learn, have ever paid out or been settled. No jury has ever found in the case of the defendants, but there have been some mistrials. Mistrials count as wins for the tobacco companies, but admitting fault or paying out in any way is anathema to success.
As the case proceeds, we follow the jury selection, the lawyers, and the judge. But remember this novel is called The Runaway Jury, and it’s by one John Grisham, so there’s always a twist. Here the twist is that one of the jury members is a plant working from the inside. He’s also got a partner on the outside manipulating from without. What we don’t know of course is what the twist will be, who they are working for, or what they want.
I have no clue if I could recommend this, but I’ve never not liked a John Grisham. He’s a total pro and goofy as hell.
