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Title details for The Appeal by John Grisham - Wait list

The Appeal

by John Grisham
Michael Beck
Audiobook
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: About 3 weeks
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0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: About 3 weeks
In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it.
Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided?
The chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau, and Mr. Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket for a billionaire like Mr. Trudeau. Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mold him into a potential Supreme Court justice. Their Supreme Court justice.
THE APPEAL is a powerful, timely, and shocking story of political and legal intrigue, a story that will leave listeners unable to think about our electoral process or judicial system in quite the same way ever again.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 29, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415943595
      • File size: 361818 KB
      • Duration: 12:33:47

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Text Difficulty: 9-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      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
    • Publisher's Weekly

      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).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Text Difficulty:9-12

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