Produktdetails
- Verlag
- Random House LLC US
- Erschienen
- 2011
- Sprache
- English
- Seiten
- 400
- Infos
- 400 Seiten
243 mm x 167 mm - ISBN
- 978-0-385-53513-7
Besprechung
PRAISE FOR THE CONFESSION
Brilliant . . . Superb . . . the kind of grab-a-reader-by-the-shoulders suspense story that demands to be inhaled as quickly as possible. Washington Post
One of Grisham s best efforts in many seasons . . . a rousing return to his dexterous good-guy-faces-corrupt-system storytelling. People magazine
Packed with tension, legal roadblocks, and shocking revelations. USA Today
Kurztext / Annotation
The partners at Finley & Figg - all two of them - often refer to themselves as "a boutique law firm." Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who've been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago.
And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he's suddenly unemployed, any job - even one with Finley & Figg - looks okay to him.
Textauszug
CHAPTER 1
The law rm of Finley & Figg referred to itself as a boutique rm. This misnomer was inserted as often as possible into routine conversations, and it even appeared in print in some of the various schemes hatched by the partners to solicit business. When used properly, it implied that Finley & Figg was something above your average two-bit operation. Boutique, as in small, gifted, and expert in one specialized area. Boutique, as in pretty cool and chic, right down to the French-ness of the word itself. Boutique, as in thoroughly happy to be small, selective, and prosperous.
Except for its size, it was none of these things. Finley & Figg s scam was hustling injury cases, a daily grind that required little skill or creativity and would never be considered cool or sexy. Pro ts were as elusive as status. The rm was small because it couldn t afford to grow. It was selective only because no one wanted to work there, including the two men who owned it. Even its location suggested a monotonous life out in the bush leagues. With a Vietnamese massage parlor to its left and a lawn mower repair shop to its right, it was clear at a casual glance that Finley & Figg was not prospering. There was another boutique rm directly across the street hated rivals and more lawyers around the corner. In fact, the neighborhood was teeming with lawyers, some working alone, others in small rms, others still in versions of their own little boutiques.
F&F s address was on Preston Avenue, a busy street lled with old bungalows now converted and used for all manner of commercial activity. There was retail (liquor, cleaners, massages) and professional (legal, dental, lawn mower repair) and culinary (enchiladas, baklava, and pizza to go). Oscar Finley had won the building in a lawsuit twenty years earlier. What the address lacked in prestige it sort of made up for in location. Two doors away was the intersection of Preston, Beech, and Thirty- eighth, a chaotic convergence of asphalt and traf c that guaranteed at least one good car wreck a week, and often more. F&F s annual overhead was covered by collisions that happened less than one hundred yards away. Other law rms, boutique and otherwise, were often prowling the area in hopes of nding an available, cheap bungalow from which their hungry lawyers could hear the actual squeal of tires and crunching of metal.
With only two attorneys/partners, it was of course mandatory that one be declared the senior and the other the junior. The senior partner was Oscar Finley, age sixty-two, a thirty-year survivor of the bare- knuckle brand of law found on the tough streets of southwest Chicago. Oscar had once been a beat cop but got himself terminated for cracking skulls. He almost went to jail but instead had an awakening and went to college, then law school. When no rms would hire him, he hung out his own little shingle and started suing anyone who came near. Thirty-two years later, he found it hard to believe that for thirty- two years he d wasted his career suing for past-due accounts receivable, fender benders, slip-and-falls, and quickie divorces. He was still married to his rst wife, a terrifying woman he wanted to sue every day for his own divorce. But he couldn t afford it. After thirty-two years of lawyering, Oscar Finley couldn t afford much of anything.
His junior partner and Oscar was prone to say things like, I ll get my junior partner to handle it, when trying to impress judges and other lawyers and especially prospective clients was Wally Figg, age forty- ve. Wally fancied himself a hardball litigator, and his blustery ads promised all kinds of aggressive behavior. We Fight for Your R
Langtext
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER After leaving a fast-track legal career and going on a serious bender, David Zinc is sober, unemployed, and desperate enough to take a job at Finley & Figg, a self-described boutique law firm that is anything but.
What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who ve been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago.
And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he s suddenly unemployed, any job even one with Finley & Figg looks okay to him.
With their new associate on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the number one cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire after several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money.
A little online research confirms Wally s suspicions a huge plaintiffs firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of people who have had heart attacks while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won t even have to enter a courtroom!
It almost seems too good to be true.
And it is.
The Litigators is a tremendously entertaining romp, filled with the kind of courtroom strategies, theatrics, and suspense that have made John Grisham America s favorite storyteller.
Don t miss John Grisham s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!
Über den AutorIn
John Grisham is the author of forty-seven consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judge's List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he's not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John lives on a farm in central Virginia.