Thoroughly enjoyable…
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
A thoroughly enjoyable outing from the master of the legal thriller. Our hero, David Zinc, walks out of his high-pressure career in a huge, high-flying law firm; and walks into the firm of Finley & Figg, ambulance-chasers extraordinaire. Oscar, Wally and their secretary Rochelle (to say nothing of the dog) only just manage to keep their heads above water by pursuing injury cases and divorces, and their tactics are not the most ethical. David is a Harvard graduate and son of a judge but has never actually been inside a courtroom. This mismatched group suddenly finds itself handling a potentially massive lawsuit against a major pharmaceutical giant, being represented by David’s former employers.
This book is much more light-hearted than some of Grisham’s other novels and has lots of humour. Wally dreams of making it rich with one massive settlement, Oscar dreams of being rich enough to divorce his wife, while David dreams of having enough energy left at the end of the working day to start a family with his lovely (and very understanding) wife, Helen.
Well-written, as Grisham’s novels always are, this time we get an insight into the distinctly unglamorous and uncertain life of the lower echelons of legal life and while it might not be much fun for the lawyers, it certainly is for us. Despite their flaws, all three of the lawyers are enjoyable characters whom we warm to more and more as the book progresses. My only complaint is that Grisham’s books are usually stand-alone, so we probably won’t get to meet with them again. All the more reason to enjoy this outing. Highly recommended.
Grisham has explored so many interesting themes in his novels hasn’t he? And although I confess I’ve not yet read this one, it sounds as though here, he shares what the world of the small (and – erm- not so aboveboard) office is like. Interesting!! Thanks for sharing your fine review.
I enjoy most of his books, but I prefer when he takes a light-hearted approach. I loved the characters in this one!
I like all of his books
I like nearly all of them, except the sports ones. But that may well be because of my profound lack of interest in baseball! 😉
A Grisham? Wowawee!
Interestingly, I’ve only tried to read one Grisham, but it was one of his worst, I think. I really should try another one. Maybe this is a good place to start? Definitely sounds interesting.
The professor sees it know: You’ll be reviewing Tom Clancy next!
(Notice the author’s face. Could one get more smug than that? Don’t think so.)
😆 That was the least smug one I could find – some of them were truly cringe-making!
Yes, I think this would be a good one to try – he’s always more fun when he takes a semi-humorous approach. I don’t know Tom Clancy at all – but just glanced at his books on Amazon and it appears he gets other people to write them? This could be the way for me to become an overnight sensation – I could ask JK Rowling to write a book in my name!!
Then I think he’d be better off not taking a picture at all.
I don’t think Clancy does that. He writes long, boring books that could–and should–be ripped. You see, Dutch liked him and…literary career made. 🙂
Don’t you even think about it! Don’t you spoil your Punchyness! You have enough creativity and wit to write your own book–which would be very good, I’m sure.
BTW, can’t wait for the T. Sawyer review!
Hehe! Wondered if you’d spot that! Since so many people are saying Huck Finn’s a contender for GAN status, I thought I should read Tom Sawyer first. I must admit the first few chapters made me chuckle – a LOT! 😆
Personally, I’ve always liked Tom Sawyer better than Huck…
From what I remember from reading them years ago, so did I. But it’ll be interesting to see whether, now that I’ll be reading HF to see why it’s considered a GAN, will that influence my opinion…? 😀
No, don’t let it. Only let the professor influence your opinion.
😆 I’ll try, but I can’t promise!
Funnily enough, a recommendation from Ronnie really doesn’t enthuse me too much!
Poor Mr Grisham – he probably can’t help looking like that. Not everyone can be as naturally gorgeous as you and I! 😉
I agree. This professor only takes recommendations from himself.
Well, the first step towards success would be to wipe that sickening grin off his face. 😉
How did you know the professor was gorgeous?
Oh… not from me then? I may go in the huff now…
In exactly the same way as you know I am! 😉
Oh no. Baskerville is on the list! Very soon.
Aha! Of course! 😉
Of course, the professor would take recommendations from FF. She’s read more books than he probably has!
I’m not at all sure about that. More crime novels perhaps, but it seems to me the professor is more widely read in ‘literature’ than I am…
Ooh, manothunder, a lightning storm has just started! Tommy doesn’t like that one little bit!
Widely read? Oh no. I don’t even read books about my own presidents! Ah! (But they don’t deserve the attention anyway!)
Really? The weather here is gorgeous–like me and you. Perfectly sunny and warm. I assume Tuppence is just fine?
I’m pretty sure Dubya’s book couldn’t be classified as literature! 😉
Both cats showed themselves up to be complete wimps – I’m ashamed of them. But they recovered post-storm when the munchy-crunchies box got rattled… I bet Bob wouldn’t have hid under the table!
I definitely hope not!
No, Bob is called a beast for a reason. Not much scares–as a matter of fact, nothing I can think of scares him. He just scares everyone else.
I’ve only read a handful of John Grisham but have enjoyed them. This one sounds interesting. Thanks
I found this one great fun, and a bit different from his usual. Thanks for commenting!
I may be the only person on the planet who has never read a Grisham, but I have read a Tom Clancy – four hours of my life I’ll never get back. My excuse is, I was young(ish) and impressionable at the time.
Yeah, I can’t say the blurbs made me feel I’d missed out on much by not reading Clancy. Not at all sure that you would enjoy Grisham either – he seems to be one of these authors that really divides opinion.
I do believe it would take this professor close to a year to finish a Clancy book–really. Four hours is pretty impressive time.
I think both of you ladies must understand that Clancy is probably geared more to men than women. All the machinery descriptions, battles, and such.
You know, there’s no funny looking kid with glasses who likes to ride on a stick, or blind soldiers being led around by Doyle, or any disagreeable chap falling in love with a disagreeable lady just because he came out of a waterhole and found her snooping around his house–Dadblameit, it’s just too plumb serious!
BigSister reads phenomenally quickly. She could get through my TBR pile in about a week, whereas I reckon I’ve got at least a year’s worth sitting there. I shall ignore the sexism in your comment re Clancy – mainly because I tend to agree with you. 😉
I really think you’re just jealous of Darcy though – you should post a photo of yourself in a wet shirt and allow all your female fans the opportunity for a nice little swoon. Tell me, when you were a young’un, did you swap insects for other people’s discarded teeth? Boys are very, very strange creatures…
Well, we have to put up with feminism so it’s only fair that you have to put up with sexism! 😉
Darby, remember. Fitz Darby. Remember what I told you: If you saw the professor you’d laugh him to scorn…
Insects? No. I wasn’t into collecting teeth. Though I see where it would be a very fun pastime. It’s much better than staring at Darby. (P & P would be a great book if Bingio was a serial killer! Ah! Now some interest!)
Ah, you say that now, but just wait till women rule the world…
Look, Chicky-Woot-Woot – a) I’m not in the habit of laughing people to scorn and b) I thought we had agreed on our mutual gorgeousness!
😆 Perhaps he is! There was a distinct lack of men around now you mention it. Getting rid of the competition, perhaps…
I hope you’ve got tomorrow’s vid ready – warn that Mic person that no further delays will be tolerated! 😉
That’ll be the day.
But you still might…it doesn’t mean you wouldn’t…
Yes, the vid for tomorrow is quite ready! Thank goodness that’s over. Now, for something new…
😆 That was a bit blunt!
OK, I might…but only if you’re [censored]! (I may delete that later… 😉 )
Yay!! Chickit!
Ah, did you recognize John Wayne? And, no, the professor is not English… 😆
Wowawee!
You should make BigSister read Ben-Hur. I’d love to see how fast she got through that. The professor feels really badly. He’s lucky if he reads 10 books a year… I think I’m outclassed.
Bet she’s read it! She’s read everything ever written – at least twice! (Actually, I think I vaguely remember that she liked the film – I wonder if she spotted the problem with his arms…)
Outclassed, obviously – we’re women! 😉
Yes, I have read Ben Hur – considerably more than twice – it was one of my favourite books in my early teens, and I can still remember great chunks of it – the scene where Judah finds his mother and sister in the leper’s cave still gives me chills. I did like the film : it had Heston in it!What was the problem with the arms?
I really enjoyed the book too–when I read it. You must have loved it. Wallace did a great job on capturing the time, I think. Did you read Les Miz? (I’ve just got to test every long book! This is amazing!)
I think the movie could have been harsher….
I have no idea what FF is talking about. She’s quite strange sometimes… 😉
FF, I do believe this professor is outclassed everywhere–except in one thing…
Nope, I’ve tried really hard to work it out but…what’s the one thing? 😉
You didn’t happen to notice poor Benny having unfortunate sores on his knuckles from dragging his abnormally long arms around? If not, then Heston mustn’t have got properly into the character… 😉
(Never read one of the Prof’s Ripping Reviews – once he puts an image into your head, sadly it never leaves…)
You know, I think I know what happened. In the movie, they switched his arms out for his neck. The neck–Heston’s, that is–is abnormally long, capable of craning in all types of odd directions.
Thanks, dear! 😀
Well…you promise you won’t laugh the professor to scorn?
😆
Promise!
I can only imagine what you’re going to think… Some professor, you might say.
Well…the professor is somewhat fluent in the art of knife throwing… Bob keeps the tally.
Kitchen knives, dear Prof? Or throwing huge daggers at an unfortunate lady tied to a wheel? Or (please say yes) can I allow my fancy to run towards some kind of martial arts (ooh, sudden vision of dinky kimonos and sashes there…) Please tell me that’s not why Bob is a little challenged in the tail department… 😉
D’you know, if you’d given me a thousand guesses, I’d still never have got it!
No, Kitchen knives are too flimsy and lack balance. The blade would break. I’ve never tried it with a lady…
Martial arts? Maybe I shouldn’t answer…
No, Bob came like that. A perfect wee Bobcat.
Curious. What would have been your first guess?
Go on, tell me more! I’m deeply intrigued…how did you get into it?
He is rather perfect, isn’t he?
I don’t know really – you are the ultimate enigma! 😉
Well…perhaps a blog post, maybe? It’s not really that complicated of a story… Ah, but then this poor professor would be thought of as a warrior… What a dilemma! I’m really not sure what to do…
Oh, yes! Bob is a sweet little beast!!!
You mean the ultimate professor! 😉
I already think of you as a warrior, so yes, you must blather about this. As self-elected head of the Professorial Fan Club, I insist! 😉
😆
Why a warrior?
I love the new club, so…okay, then!!!
I suspect it’s down to your tendency to want to beat people over the head on a regular basis, combined with this new revelation…and I vividly remember the image of you doing hundreds of pull-ups… Muscled and lethal – cor! 😉
Cor? Hmm… What’s it mean?
Boy would you laugh if you saw the professor…
But definitely a lethal side.
Don’t Americans say cor? Sometimes I wonder how you all manage to communicate at all. And don’t call me boy! 😉
Never heard of it… But I have heard of Prince Cor…
Roughly speaking, it means Wowawee! It’s the kind of thing I might say when confronted by Rafa’s new shorts…
Narnia? You are a constant source of surprise to me… 😉
Did you seriously think the professor wouldn’t like his favorite book? (Is such a thing possible?)
Eh? Deeply confused now – Narnia? But they weren’t written by Mr Moustache… 😕
What I meant to say is that The Horse and his Boy is one of professor’s favorite books.
Don’t believe that I only like Twain. That is just professorish posh…
(uuu – sorry, just had to use them – they were looking so lost and lonely)
I love the Narnia books – they’re very special. Is this the first time we’ve agreed about a book? Apart from The P & The P, that is.
I still haven’t given up all hope that the professor might one day reveal his bookshelves. 😉
Use what?
I love the Narnia books too!!! I really identify with Shashta… (I hope I spelled that right.)
Lewis is a great writer. The professor learns a lot from him.
Why are they special…?
But I can’t! For a specific reason… I’m quite sorry.
The unemployed uuus!
Well, three reasons, I suppose – remembering that I read them when I was very young. Firstly Aslan – one of the great characters of literature. I loved him so much – and not in a Darcy-ish way. He was so real to me. And secondly, they were so imaginative and created a complete world where there was room enough for this reader to have her own imaginary adventures. And thirdly, as they got darker as the series went on, they didn’t ever patronise.
Sorry, but you did ask! 😉
The only thing is that I’m frightened really to re-read them in case they don’t live up to my memory of them.
OK, I’ll stop going on about the bookshelves 🙂
The professor uses them now, so don’t worry. Colour!
I actually had them read to me when I was young. Since then, I’ve reread them a couple of times. The Horse and his Boy is the perfect adventure story. Never going to be beaten!
The world that Lewis created was just plumb fabulous… Maybe even inspired the PL…
Do you remember your favourite? (Notice the employed u.)
Well, on second thought, maybe I will post a pic of my bookshelves. But you mustn’t laugh. The professor isn’t a great reader.
I thank you on behalf of oppressed u’s everywhere!
For me it was the first The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Two reasons this time – firstly the heroine Lucy was the youngest child, as was I, so I really identified with her. And secondly, the scene where Aslan sacrfices himself to save Edmund – I actually still can’t think of that without being in danger of crying. The amazing descriptions of his beautiful face, his mane being cut off – and the eyes with all the sadness of the world in them…and then the joy when he returns to life. Yes, I know now that it’s all symbolism, but not when I was a child – then it was all real.
See what you’ve started? 😉
Lewis uses the symbolism very, very powerfully. Symbolism enhances the emotions of the scene, at least that’s what the professor believes.
Always loved that book myself.
I think I’ve found your favorite book! 😉
Haha! I’d forgotten how much I loved it till we started talking about it. Certainly one of the two most loved books of my childhood (the other being Anne of Green Gables), and thinking back, one of the books that made me become such a lover of fiction.
But you haven’t found my favoUrite all-time book yet – probably not as meaningful to me, but the one that I admire and love most…
Oh, that’s not fair!
I must needs to know. What is your favourite ( 😀 ) book?
Well, here’s Twain’s description of the author…
“His pictures are hardly handsome, and he, like everybody else, is less handsome than his pictures. That fashion he has of brushing his hair and goatee so resolutely forward gives him a comical Scotch-terrier look about the face, which is rather heightened than otherwise by his portentous dignity and gravity. But that queer old head took on a sort of beauty, bye and bye, and a fascinating interest, as I thought of the wonderful mechanism within it, the complex but exquisitely adjusted machinery that could create men and women, and put the breath of life into them and alter all their ways and actions, elevate them, degrade them, murder them, marry them, conduct them through good and evil, through joy and sorrow, on their long march from the cradle to the grave, and never lose its godship over them, never make a mistake! I almost imagined I could see the wheels and pulleys work.”
Okay, now I know it’s Dickens… But what book?
This is extremely vexing–and unfair!
If I mentioned spontaneous combustion, would that help?
Bleak House? Dadblameit! Doesn’t that start off with a lizard crawling up the street?
(By the way, Twain was quite fond of Dickens, you know.)
A lizard? In Victorian London? Not unless Dickens had been at the gin again… 😉
Yes, I was pleased to discover that – I was frightened he might have ripped him and then I’d have had to bea…well, you know!
Have you read it?
Well some dinosaur then!! The professor doesn’t know…
I know that Twain didn’t like Poe…or Cooper.
No…should I?
Well, I’ve been noticing some slight style similarities while reading Twain – particularly the humour. And he also does the social commentary, though I think he’s much darker and more bitter than Twain. So from that aspect I think you might well love it…but then there’s Dickens’ sentimental streak. It’s not as bad in Bleak House as in, say, David Copperfield, but it’s still there – and I’m not sure how you’d react to that…
But hey, you’d either love it or you’d be able to do a fabulous rip – so…Yes, read it! (It’s a huge brick of a book, of course.)
Haha! I just checked the first paragraph and you’re right! An imaginary dinosaur but nonetheless… 😆
Twain was considered sentimental too–and profane, so maybe the professor would like it!
My TBR list keeps growing no thanks to you! 😉 Holmes is up next, I believe.
I knew there was a dino! Of course, that’s what the professor would remember…
Profane? I haven’t come across that aspect yet…at least, I haven’t noticed it…
Well, you’ll need to read all the Holmes stories now – for research purposes. Can’t wait to see what you do with them! Are you going to base them on the original stories or create your own? No, on second thoughts, don’t tell me – it’ll spoil the surprise. 😀
I’m frankly baffled as to how I managed to forget the dino!
Me neither. It just says that in every Twain bio!
That’s true. Must research now. The answer to your question is both. So it will still be a surprise!
Yes, that is odd… 🙂 In JP the professor always roots for the dinos over the humans…
Well, yes…but the humans in that film were so dadblamed stupid they deserved everything they got!
The Speckled Band, The Dancing Men, Silver Blaze, The Musgrave Ritual – ooh, and The Lion’s Mane! Just mentioning a few of my favourite Holmes stories…no reason! 😉
They’re even worse in the books, if I recall correctly.
😆 Cor, what have I got myself into!
😆 Then there’s The Golden Pince-Nez, The Red-Headed League, The Hound of the….
Blimey, it could take you years!
And then you could do a Dickens series… 😉
Ooh, or a Professor Challenger one…
Or a Punchy Les Mis!
How did you know we were planning a Les Mis video? I think you can read the professor’s mind…
Haha! Really? You must have brainwashed me into total Punchyism! Oh no, I just know I’m going to start saying Maburnit out loud…
Yes, really.
You mean you haven’t already? 😉 I think BigSister would enjoy it…
I’m not so sure…for some reason, it sounds very aggressive in a Glaswegian accent! 😉
Do you know, I realise that I’ve never read a Grisham novel, although I’m sure I must have seen some of the related films. Any suggestions as to what might be a good one to start with?
It’s funny – you asking that question has made me realise that, although I enjoy Grisham, they don’t really stay with me much. This was one of the more enjoyable ones, but something like The Runaway Jury is probably more typical. He’s been blowing hot and cold (for me) in recent years, so I think it’s probably better to start with one of the earlier books when he seemed more consistent.
Avoid his sporting books at all costs!!
I’m not a Grisham fan, but this one sounds promising the way you describe the lighter tone and plot line. Thanks.
I much prefer him when he’s in light-hearted vein – i wish he’d do it more often. 🙂