This reviewer doesn't know how good a lawyer John Grisham is. Certainly he's no Clarence Darrow, whose winning cases are still talked about a century later. But Darrow didn't pen courtroom dramas, while Grisham does. Many other lawyers do too, with Grisham's regarded, critically and popularly, as the pick of the crop.
Gray Mountain By John Grisham Hodder and Stroughton 368pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 795 baht
Why are his novels the best? This reason, that reason, the other reason. But he is better than the sum of his parts. As I see it, they add up to him being an extraordinary storyteller. Alas, very few authors are.
Through protagonists in novels, films and TV, lawyers aren't highly regarded in real life (unless desperately needed). Commonly compared to sharks seeking money, justice is not their primary concern. Their veracity, rather the lack of it, is on a par with politicians.
Grisham doesn't ignore lawyers like this in his stories, but treats them as bad apples in a barrel. By and large, small town lawyers are more trustworthy than those from big firms in the cities. He also acknowledges that slick lawyers are all too often clever enough to find loopholes in the law.
The protagonist of Gray Mountain is Samantha. At 20, she is an all but ignored lawyer in a Goliath Manhattan law firm. Which doesn't prevent it from going under during a recession. Unsuccessfully looking for work up and down the East Coast, she finds it in a small Virginia town.
The case thrown into Samantha's lap is against a mining company that ruined the environment by extracting coal from West Virginia's Gray Mountain. The author vividly describes the lives of the people living in what is known as Appalachia. The underhand practices of the company and its lawyers are exposed by Samantha, making her famous.
Every major law firm in the country tries to make her an offer she can't refuse. Or she can remain with her new friends in Virginia at a tiny fraction of the salary being offered elsewhere. One guess as to her decision. Suffice to say you'll want to pat her on the back, or howl in laughter. John Grisham has never been in better form.
Spark By John Twelve Hawks Bantam 305pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 650 baht
The future is now
At the tail-end of the 19th century, it was commonly believed that everything that was needed had already been invented. The human mind had gone as far as it was capable. The world need only enjoy the fruits of ingenuity. Then came the 20th century, during which there were more inventions than in all past centuries put together.
While still in its infancy, it is clear that the 21st century is far outpacing its predecessor. Inventors, not least scientists, are forging not only ahead but in different directions. Committees are struggling to determine who should be awarded Nobel Prizes.
Aware of this, novelists are following in the footsteps of Jules Verne. It is science fiction, not of the distant future, but rather the near future. Likely as not, the immediate future. For one, the internet has yet to realise its full potential, being researched and developed in several countries.
In Spark, John Twelve Hawks gives us a preview of what life will soon be like. The setting is the Big Apple. Surveillance cameras have been up in cities and towns for some time to detect trouble and nip it in the bud. The author goes further and has identification chips in people's hands.
The internet takes in all information, editing out what the powers that be regard as harmful, passing along the rest. Computers can blow themselves up. The treasure at the end of the rainbow, in and out of the laboratories, is artificial intelligence.
Despite the number of pages defining the protagonist, Jacob Underwood is impossible to get a handle on. In a motorcycle accident in Manhattan he loses not only his memory but his sense of right and wrong and everything else that makes us civilised, though he does remember English when out of his coma.
Believing himself no more than a spark inside a shell, Jacob is taken on as a hitman with no conscience. He converses with a disembodied woman's voice on the internet, who gives him directions. She even sings for him when asked. Something in him refuses when told to neutralise Emily, an employee who has evidence of a deadly terrorist conspiracy. At the end, Jacob faces down his boss and they shoot at each other.
