In The Rogue Lawyer, John Grisham continues
his tradition of mocking at our imperfect legal system, this time with
protagonist, sleazy street lawyer, Sebastian Rudd. Rudd doesn’t have an office and works out of
a customized van complete with driver and armed body guard, Partner, a former
client. (Yes, like Michael Connelly’s
Lincoln Lawyer.) Rudd represents the
clients no other lawyer will touch…
murderers, rapists, kidnappers, drug dealers and crime lords who are
usually guilty. Representing these folks
has given him an insight of the improprieties in our legal system that are ignored
by most… overzealous cops, incompetent prosecutors and judges, and greedy,
ambitious politicians. When Rudd isn’t
fighting for (or with) his low life clients, he is fighting his former wife, Judith for visitation rights of their young son, Starcher (named by his mother.) Judith is now a lesbian and a lawyer who specializes in representing gays against discrimination. Rudd hopes only to stay relevant in
Starcher’s life to give the kid an escape when he can no longer tolerate his overbearing
mother and her lover, Ava.
The book is written
in a little different format than most.
The first quarter tells a complete story with enough character development
to be considered a novelette. The last
three quarters introduces new characters and develops plot lines mostly unrelated
to the first section… like the way a TV series is structured… humm.
In the first
plot line, Rudd visits the local penitentiary to witness his crime lord client,
Link Scanlon’s execution. A jury of his
peers found Scanlon guilty of murder and all the appeals have been filed with Judd
representing him all the way.
Miraculously, Scanlon seems to have more power on death row than out in
the world. He manages to escape by
helicopter from the prison, hours before his scheduled execution. He then hounds Rudd from his off shore
hideout for a refund of legal fees.
Rudd does
represent one law abiding citizen in a criminal suit against the city police
department. Douglas Renfro is retired
and lives in quiet suburbia with his wife when the next door neighbor kid
hijacks their Wi-Fi to distribute illegal drugs. The police connect Renfro’s IP address to the
illegal activity and send the SWAT team at 3:00 AM to raid Renfro’s home. Douglas pulls out his hand gun thinking thugs
are breaking in and fires at the armed invaders. The police return fire wounding Douglas and
killing his wife then claim their excess use of force was justified. Rudd is uniquely qualified to thoroughly humiliate the city on behalf of his client.
In another
plot line, a low life hires Rudd then tells him under attorney client privilege
that he has information about a police captain’s kidnapped daughter. Unfortunately, the client’s check bounces so
Rudd cuts him loose as a client. The
police covertly kidnap Starcher, Rudd’s son and try to extort the information
out of Rudd. The client has lied to Rudd
but the lawyer uses what he knows to gain revenge on his low life non-client and the rogue
police… all in one clever move.
The Rogue Lawyer is a good read but not one of Grisham’s
best. His borrowing of Connelly’s character
idea and structuring the book for an easy edit for TV seems just a bit
self-serving. You have to get over that
to enjoy the book. But his cynicism for
our legal system and some of the incompetence it attracts as well as his
sarcasm, make for great story telling.
And if it does get picked up by one of the streamers or a cable network,
I’ll definitely watch it.
My wife and I just finished listening to this as a "book on tape" while we were on a drive through the South. It made the driving go faster, was entertaining, although not one of Grisham's best. This one felt more like a series of short stories with only a thinly developed and unfinished plot to tie the other stories together.
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