Hey Friends,
Here comes another breathtakingly exciting tale from the expert of legal fiction. This one’s not about some big gung ho smartass lawyer trying to sue some big corporate order to get his usual one third cut out of punitive damages neither is it about some big criminal trial and serious court room brawling, this one my friends is all about the jury. The jury of is the central thing of the story, the whole story revolves around it and you will get mesmerized by reading how the jury was manipulated!
The reason for manipulation – the same is it always is – MONEY!!!
The Characters
There are too many characters in this novel. Most of them play important if not central part in the story and all of them can not be named here for obvious reasons.
The main are – Jeff Kerr alias Nicolas Easter and his girl friends Claire Clement alias Marlee.
Easter met Marlee (the aliases are being used because the same are used in the whole story, their real names just appear one in story that too during an investigation) while he was in first year of law school in Kansas University. She worked in some restaurant cum beer bar, basically a hang out joint for law students. Easter met Marlee and their romance started after some time. Eventually Easter lost interest in law and dropped out of Law College after his second year which he barely finished.
They both maintained low profiles and disappeared afterwards living with false identities and moving around different counties never staying at one place for more than 4-5 months.
They both start following tobacco litigation and finally end up Biloxi, Mississippi where the mother of all tobacco trials is currently going on. (More on this in the second heading.)
Rankin Fitch is the person who is in command in a big civil case of Woods vs. Pynex. He is the one who is calling the shots, managing the lawyers, supervising the jury consultants, organizing the surveillance on prospective jurors and terrorizing all his recruits to work hard because they can not afford to lose the mother of all tobacco trials.
He is secretly hired by the four biggest tobacco companies to do their dirty job and Fitch doesn’t mind it at all.
In other characters there is Judge Harkin who need to be mentioned.
Otherwise, there are defendant lawyers, plaintiff lawyers, jury consultants, investigators and clerks of all capacities, more jury consultants and more lawyers working in almost all sorts of capabilities.
The Story
Story is a reasonably complexed one. But then, this much complication is necessary for a novel to become a best seller and an interesting read.
Easter and Marlee have been following tobacco litigation for a long time. They know that tobacco companies have been sued for the same cause 16 times and they managed to win all 16 times – by hook or by crook.
This time it’s the biggest trial going on in Biloxi. If the tobacco companies win this one it can put all trial lawyers to a rest for at least a decade, if they lose all trial lawyer of all capacities will close in for the kill using a weapon called class action suits. In case of a hung jury same drama will be replayed after 2 years. And Easter knows that it is extremely important for tobacco companies to win this time and they are ready to pull any number of strings for it.
Easter manages to get a place of the jury, the final 12 jurors selected to hear the case. Now he starts playing games with Fitch who want to win this case for his employers (The Big Four).
Marlee starts to contact with Fitch and she starts to give him hints that she can deliver him a favorable verdict if Fitch wants to purchase it or she can deliver him a verdict that will put Fitch out of job.
Finally they cut a deal, Easter manipulates the jury and Marlee cuts the deal. She takes heavy money from Fitch to get him a favorable verdict but most amazingly she returns all the money back to Fitch after receiving the money and she still walks away happy.
No one ever knew that the jury was manipulated. Even thought people got suspicious after the trial no one ever knew it was Easter, for those who doubted it was Easter never found him and will never find him because he is now a Canadian citizen. Why did Easter ran away?
Some Final Comments
This is a very fine novel by John Grisham. I will put it in five best novels of him. Those five in my opinion are –
The Last Juror
The Firm
A Time to Kill
The Rainmaker
The Runaway Jury
(Note – The list is my personal opinion and can change according to the opinion of the readers. But wouldn’t you agree that these are indeed some of the best works of JG is not the best 5 works?!!! The list is subject to change as I keep on reading more of his novels; in my subsequent review I will update the list according to any developments.
If you have something to contribute to this list or any sort of suggestions they are most welcome.)
The plot of the novel is same as The Partner’s. Story starts with little clue about anything that is about to happen. The characters open with the story and new one keep on appearing in the story.
As the characters introduce themselves the story progresses at a rapid speed, in between little things about the past of Easter and Marlee are revealed. And as the story proceeds to end you will know almost everything about Easter and his past but it’s the past of Marlee that has to be protected and that mysterious thing that kept Marlee so secretive about his past is revealed at the very last moment of the story.
Just in the final 5-6 pages you come to know the motive of Easter and Marlee about all the scheming and plotting and studying of tobacco litigation and finally cutting a deal with Fitch.
You are never sure what is going to happen in the story and that is what keeps you one the edge-of-the-seat. Story proceeds at a very fast pace and there are very few lose ends. None that I noticed, if you happen to notice please be kind enough to leave some comments so that I can know what I missed.
Finally, the climax is very fine. I have read 12 of his novels up to date and the biggest weakness of JG is the ending of the story. At times he messes up with the ending so bad it spoils the fun of whole novels. For example, The Partner could have very easily been ‘the best’ work of JG but he has messed up with the ending so bad it not only gives you a deep shock but also there was simply no read of spoiling such a fine story with such an ‘unexpected’ ending.
As the story was in its final chapters I feared the same fate for The Runaway Jury (partly because I had read The Partner previous to it!) but it ended up in a fine good happy ending which really gives you one of those broad grins of completing a novel and satisfying it.
It is a fine novel, will make for an interesting reading anytime – traveling, bed time reading, time pass on a weekend with such hot weather (at the time of submitting this review it is May in India and hot like hell), regular reading for those addicted to novels, for someone looking to break free from non fiction this will be a breath of fresh air and a must read for every John Grisham fan – worth purchasing for your own collection.
Happy Reading,
Khagesh Gautam
P.S. The rate written below is misleading. I bought a set of two novels – The Partner and The Runaway Jury, both part of one book – one of those two bestsellers in one volume type of books that cost me Rs. 150 after student discount. The real rate was Rs. 175. Such double volumes are also available at https://indiatimes.com books section at attractive prices so check it out.
