Setting The Scene

There is nothing like curling up with a spicy suspenseful and scandalous Grisham novel and grinning as I turn each page. His traditional writing transports us to some sort of judicial or legal related controversy in the southeastern part of the country. Tennessee and Mississippi are typical stomping ground for his characters. This particular book is focused in Mississippi. Now please understand, that I am from the South (Texas --> the REAL south) so I enjoy reading novels based on southern traditionalists. For starters, southerners say "yall." So, venture with me if you will to Mississippi.

The premise of the book is based on a court case facing Krane Chemical. The book opens mid-court preceding. Krane is being sued by widow Mary Grace for illegally dumping toxic waste in the public water system and thus causing cancer in her husband and child. The cancer eventually killed both her family members and she's taken up suit. She's represented by Payton & Payton law firm. Now there's several layers to the story here. This particular location of toxic waste dumping has not just affected this family. It's affected the entire city. The toxic waste seeped into the public water system and cancer broke out everywhere. 1 in 4 citizens developed some type of cancer. The death rate sky rocketed. The city became known as "cancer county." Krane denies all dumping, of course. The third layer to this story is that Payton & Payton law firm reluctantly tackled this law case. They bankrupt their entire firm representing this case. This was a critical case as it was the first against Krane accusing them of such monstrosity. The long drawn out court case proved worth it. Mary Grace was awarded 41 million for her loss. WHAT!!!! Yes, this is all just SETTING THE SCENE for the book.

The CEO of Krane Chemical, Mr.Trudeau takes the hit. He realizes that because of the appeal process and generally slow-processes of the judicial system, the actual 41 million won't be paid out for over a year. Krane averages about 40 million in revenue each month. This hit, if isolated, isn't a big deal. The problem is, the precedent the case sets. Now every Tom, Sue, and Sally with cancer in "cancer county" presumably has a case -- and a BIG one! Krane has to appeal this verdict to the Mississippi Supreme Court. But Krane, specifically Mr.Trudeau cannot risk loosing his appeal. In short, he needs to BUY his verdict.

Hmmm. You can't bribe existing justices. So Mr.Trudeau fronts a hefty 7 million to a promising private organization, Judicial Vision. JV promises to elect a candidate to run in the upcoming election BEFORE the appeal makes it to the supreme court. JV explains that they specialize in getting people elected. JV scouts out a prime candidate for the supreme court; a squeaky clean politician. They find Ron Fisk. Fisk is a lawyer with no prior political ambitions. However, after a quick presentation from JV about how the MSC needs to be strengthened with more conservative justices. He takes the bait. At this point he has no idea that he's being pawned to deliver a verdict.

JV seems a bit sketchy. Grisham definitely has more to reveal about this company. They are sleek and slimy, I sense it. The campaign for Ron Fisk has started. He's running against incumbent McCarthy, a liberal female soft on conservative justice.

This is getting down right dirty. Tisk Tisk Krane Chemical.