The Runaway Jury

Author: John Grisham
Genre: fiction, legal thriller
Publication info: Doubleday, 1996
Pages: 401

This is novel #2. I forgot to mention that these all have to be written by authors whose work I've never read before. The Runaway Jury is my first foray into John Grisham fiction. And possibly my last. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'd intended to read a Grisham novel for a while, I guess to see what all the fuss is about. I normally stay away from books where you can see the author's name from a mile away but you have to be holding the book to be able to read the title. Grisham's books usually fit that description, so I usually ignore them. But sometimes curiosity gets the best of me. And having a class assignment like the one I have definitely speeds up the process.

I also thought this would be an interesting way to learn about how the courtroom works, a subject I know virtually nothing about. I don't know whether I got an accurate depiction with this novel, but at least it held my interest. Most of the time, anyway.

The Runaway Jury is the story of a big lawsuit against a big tobacco company. If successful, the lawsuit could cripple Big Tobacco indefinitely. So both sides of the case gather all the legal weaponry they can.

It begins with the jury. I had no idea that the parties in the lawsuit could have any say in who is selected for the jury, but apparently getting the right jury is one of the surest ways to win the case. To this end, the defense hires consultant Rankin Fitch. I'm not sure what Fitch's actual job description is; he seems to control everything about the case outside of the courtroom. He oversees the careful examination of every potential juror, and throughout the trial he makes sure each member of the jury is leaning the way he wants. He'll do what it takes, even if it's illegal.

But there are a few problems. One is Nicholas Easter, a young man selected for the jury whose background remains a total mystery and who has a powerful influence over the rest of the jurors. The other is a young woman who frequently calls up Fitch with odd predictions about the jury's behavior, and the predictions always come true. She seems to know too much, and her motives are dubious.

It's an interesting story with enough questions to keep you turning pages. Unfortunately, the pacing is pretty slow at times. Just when it starts to get really interesting, the story slows down again—there's a lot of stop-and-go action. I've heard this is a common characteristic of Grisham's novels. It doesn't necessarily kill the story, but it does make it hard to get through.

The fun of the story, for me, came from all the opportunities to figure out what was going on. Sometimes I was right, and other times I was dead wrong. In either case, it was satisfying. I don't know if I'll ever read Grisham again, because of the pacing issue, but I'd still say this novel was pretty good. Maybe you'd like it.