The Runaway Jury

by John Grisham | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0440221471 Global Overview for this book
Registered by easterngirl71 of Alton, Illinois USA on 1/16/2009
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by easterngirl71 from Alton, Illinois USA on Friday, January 16, 2009
They are at the center of a multimillion-dollar legal hurricane: twelve men and women who have been investigated, watched, manipulated, and harrassed by high-priced lawyers and consultants who will stop at nothing to secure a verdict. Now the jury must make a decision in the most explosive civil trial of the century, a precedent-setting lawsuit against a giant tobacco company. But only a handful of people know the truth: that this jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him...
He is known only as juror #2. But he has a name, a past, and he has planned his every move with the help of a beautiful woman on the outside. Now, while a corporate empire hangs in the balance, while a greving family waits, and while lawyers are plunged into a battle for their careers, the truth about juror #2 is about to explode in a cross fire of greed and corruption---and with justice fighting for it's life...

Journal Entry 2 by easterngirl71 at Alton, Illinois USA on Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (4/21/2009 UTC) at Alton, Illinois USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending to fellow BCer for entering my When Will I Read My 500th Book Contest! Enjoy jlautner!!

Journal Entry 3 by jlautner from Henderson, Nevada USA on Monday, April 27, 2009
Woo! Surprise in my mailbox! Consolation prize from easterngirl71. Thank you! You've no idea how this brightened my day.

Journal Entry 4 by jlautner from Henderson, Nevada USA on Thursday, April 30, 2009
Grisham knows law. And he knows how it works, legally or otherwise. In his novels he frequently points up flaws in the justice system as it has evolved. In this particular case he goes further: he pursues a series of what-ifs.

What if a person wanted to get on a particular jury?

What if that person wanted to influence the verdict?

What if that person had an interest in selling that influence?

How would it be done?

More a complex puzzle, really, than a novel, this story is about jury tampering from within. At the heart is a young man who calls himself Nicholas Easter. He manages to get on the jury for a tobacco trial, and immediately he starts making waves. He works to influence others on the jury and to manipulate the jury as a whole to do his bidding.

The defense is using a consultant who will do anything to get the right vote. This consultant, Fitch, starts to get phone calls from a young woman who calls herself Marlee, who tells him things about the jury that could only come from inside. Fitch realizes she may have the power to get him the vote he wants.

Some of the things Nicholas does annoy me. And I suspect they would have annoyed other jury members as well. Other things put him in the spotlight as the guy who can get stuff done, like get lunch delivered on time and on china plates.

I suspect a fellow jury member would cotton to his manipulative character and his willingness to cause trouble (he even engineers "strikes"). I found it difficult to buy that he would get so much of the jury to go along with him.

More, though, I had trouble believing how easily he manipulates the judge. There are good reasons for many of the rules generally followed for sequestered juries, for example. Mainly, the reasons for sequestering a jury are to keep the jury from leaking information about its members, to prevent jurors' access to news about the trial, and to keep others from having access to jurors for nefarious purposes. Thus it is reasonable to want to search their baggage for communication devices, to restrict access to the telephone, to restrict television viewing. I can understand why a judge wants to bend over backward to accommodate jurors who are in for a long trial. But I can't understand why a judge would take leave of common sense in lifting some of the restrictions.

Much of what goes on with this jury depends on the judge being willing to listen to Nicholas privately and on his being willing to lift standard restrictions. Perhaps we are to assume that if Nicholas were unable to accomplish his tasks he would have to wait until the next trial.

My quibbles with Nicholas and the judge aside, the mystery to me and perhaps everyone was really who is Nicholas and who is Marlee and what are they really hiding and what do they really want? I found this question gnawing enough to keep me reading, even though I could not warm up to any of the characters. Perhaps it is just as well that I was not rooting for anyone, though. I was able to follow the slow revelation of the puzzle with a detached feeling, suitable to the story-telling nature of the novel.


Journal Entry 5 by jlautner from Henderson, Nevada USA on Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Added to princess-peapod's ABC bookbox.

Released 14 yrs ago (5/6/2009 UTC) at Post Office on Dalidio and Madonna in San Luis Obispo, California USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Joined princess-peapod's ABC bookbox and is winging its way to the next person on the list.

Journal Entry 7 by princess-peapod at Avila Beach, California USA on Friday, October 23, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (10/23/2009 UTC) at Avila Beach, California USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

If you found this book while in the area of San Luis Obispo, CA. feel free to come by and check out Joe Mommas which houses our bookshelf! We also hold our local meetups on the first Tuesday of each month at 5pm there, please come join the fun! The books on the shelf are free to for you to read, enjoy and pass along to another!

got this back in a bookbox and it is one I have read so it is going out to one of the winners of my mixed bookbox give away!
enjoy the assortment of books!
happy bookcrossing

"A book is a mysterious object, I said, and once it floats out into the world, anything can happen. All kinds of mischief can be caused, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. For better or worse, it's completely out of your control."
Paul Auster


Journal Entry 8 by rem_KQI-811293 on Monday, October 26, 2009
Got this in a big box of RABCKs from princesspeapod. Some I will keep, some I will pass along. Will try to read this one, never read Grisham so maybe this one will be the start.

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.