The Appeal

Few authors can compete with John Grisham in the genre of courtroom dramas. Narrator Michael Beck performs with equal skill. Grisham follows a trial verdict up the judicial system to the appeals court in this frightening look at politics, greed, and corruption. Much of the story looks behind the scenes at how big business fixes judicial races, guaranteeing a sympathetic panel of judges. Beck pulls in the listener with a measured delivery of this tense, very human novel. We feel the pain of the small town poor who are dying of cancer caused by a chemical plant. The ending, which may come as a shock, is made even more powerful in audio. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

February 25, 2008
A Mississippi jury returns a $41-million verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping carcinogenic waste into a small town's water supply. The company's ruthless billionaire CEO is thwarted and the good guys (a courageous young woman who lost her husband and child and her two lawyers who've gone half a million dollars in debt preparing her case) receives its just reward. This sounds like the end of a Grisham legal thriller, but instead it's the beginning of a book-length lesson in how greed and big business have corrupted our electoral and judicial systems. Grisham's characters are over-the-top. The CEO and the other equally overdone villains—his venal trophy wife, a self-serving senator and a pair of smarmy political fixers—as well as the unbelievably good-hearted, self-sacrificing lawyers and an honorable state judge, are one dimensional. Michael Beck, with his natural Southern drawl, does a fine job of adding credibility and nuance to the large cast. But his efforts are for naught. In fact, the more he makes us feel for these characters, the less apt we are to be satisfied with the sourball moral of Grisham's downbeat discourse. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (reviewed online).