Saturday, January 17, 2015

"Gray Mountain" by John Grisham



Gray Mountain by John Grisham is about a lawyer, Samantha, who loses her cushy job in New York City at a big firm and goes to Brady, Virginia to work as an intern at a legal aid clinic with no pay for a year.  Her job in New York mainly involved proofreading documents for business transactions but when she joins the Legal Aid Clinic, she feels like a real lawyer, actually making a difference in people’s lives.  When she meets the Gray brothers, nephews of Mattie, the owner of the legal aid clinic, she finds herself unknowing pulled into a dangerous situation as Donovan Gray, an attorney who likes big cases against coal mining companies, takes a personal interest in her.  Samantha eventually must choose what world she wants to work in.  Will she remain to follow-up on her meaningful cases and continue to become a litigator fighting for the poor people who really need her help or go back to the corporate scene where she is paid the big bucks and given a cushy office? 

I liked this book and learned a lot about strip mining and the plight of coal miners who contract black lung disease.  It paints a pretty dark picture of how hard it is for the miners to get the benefits they deserve.  I found the cases Samantha was involved in during her time at the legal aid clinic interesting because they made her feel more like a social worker than a lawyer.  This novel has very little court scenes because it focuses more on the leg work involved in preparing for trial.  
(Karen's review, 3 stars)
 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

1 comment:

  1. Well it's about time. After too many years of medicare novels, Grisham finally has his swing back. This is a tension laced legal thriller, all set in the mountains of Appalachia. I had given up on Grisham although I read his each new book in the hopes that he would turn it around. well he has and I am bald of it. He id a certified southern author with all that that entails. Highly recommended.

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