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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780385508049
ISBN number: 0385508042
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: 2003-02
Publishing house: Doubleday
Sale Popularity Level: 303076
Studio: Doubleday
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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...
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Rated by buyers -
This is a review of the audibook read by Michael Beck
Grisham's "The King of Torts" continues the trend that he started in other books such as The Chamber and The Runaway Jury. The book isn't really about the characters or the plot. Instead, it's a easy to swallow education into how the legal system actually works.
In "The Chamber" the reader sees how death penalty cases work in detail. In "The Runaway Jury" the readers sees how a civil jury trial works in detail - from selection of the court venue to clothing worn by the attornies to jury selection specialists.
In "The King of Torts" we learn all about how the class action lawsuit works. Ever wonder how former presidential candidate John Edwards made his money? This book well give you a good idea. Grisham argues all sides of the class action lawsuit as he tells the story. It can help and hurt the little guy. It can enrich an attorney, but that's not entirely a bad thing since he's put money into telling people about bad products that injured them with no promise of an actual payoff. It can wipe out businesses, but if you've put a bad product out there why shouldn't you be hurt? Then again, wiping out a bad business still puts a lot of people out of work through no fault of their own.
Grisham argues all sides and leaves the reader to make up his or her own mind. It was a wonderful education, well-read by Michael Beck who created dozens of voices for his narration. However, the actual story was less than satisfying. The plot seemed to meander around with pointless interludes that did little to advance the plot but did take up lots of time. I gave it 3 stars - 5 for the education, 1 for the plot. It's worth a listen, but only for the education.
Rated by buyers 
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I found this book particularly interesting because I work in health care. Health care has spawned the side industry of health-related legal settlements. Class action lawsuits have taken this industry to a whole new level, and this book exposes the mechanisms of this legal area with Grisham's usual attention to detail and to the meticulous unfolding of the story. When thousands of people are physically or emotionally harmed by medications, products,etc. and hundreds of millions of dollars are mobilized, who benefits and why? Luxury jets, palacial homes, yachts, Caribbean getaways, mistresses populate this landscape. The view leaves one nauseous. The book has excitement and suspense and moves swiftly to the end.
Rated by buyers 
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Grisham has mastered the craft of telling a good story, but seems to lack the artistic spark to tell a very good one.
This straightforward story of rags to riches to rags is so predictable beginning to end that it actually kept me reading intently in expectation of something, some big plot twist, some mystery, some surprise, until the last page.
The realization that the creative spark never fired left me flat.
Grisham has to do better.
Rated by buyers -
I think Grisham has lost his edge. If this was supposed to be a thriller,comparable to his early work, it fell short. I kept thinking that any moment there would be a surprise twist or something to make it a Grisham worthy read. There is no depth to the characters, the plot was predictable and kind of boring. As others have mentioned, greedy lawyers are kind of a given in tort law, no? I am glad I borrowed this from a friend instead of purchasing it. I have really enjoyed The Firm, The Pelican Brief, Backstreet Lawyer, even the Summons and the Testament. This one - not so much.
Rated by buyers -
Mass tort lawyers are the men who win billion-dollar class-action settlements from corporations selling bad products, then rake fantastic fees off the top, with far smaller payouts going to the people harmed by the products. Clay Carter is a burning-out lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender (OPD) in Washington, D.C., when he catches the case of a teen who, for no apparent reason, has gunned down an acquaintance. Clay is approached by a mysterious stranger, who says he represents a megacorporation whose bad drug caused the teen--and others--to kill. Thus begins the life of a tort lawyer. It's been a while since I have read a "great" Grisham, but this one was pretty good.
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