Unusually for legal thrillers this book starts with the trial verdict, and as the name suggests the verdict is appealed.

~Short Synopsis~

The books begins at the end of a piece of civil litigation with the giant chemical company Krane defending their dumping of carcinogenic chemicals in a town's water supply and rejecting the claims of the townsfolk and particularly the plaintiff Jeanette Baker, who's son and husband died of cancer.
Krane Chemicals is part of the Trudeau Group owned by billionaire Carl Trudeau.

When the verdict finally comes in the jury have awarded a total of $41 million dollars in damages and punitive damages.

Trudeau insists his company will not be paying out anything, and so begins the appeal.

The story follows the lives of the lawyers who took Jeanette Baker's case and their struggle to overcome the costs of both the case and the appeal. It also follows the lives of Carl Trudeau and his companies, and his love of money over people.

But the majority of the story is about the corruption in the US Supreme Court system and the way in which good men can be manipulated by big business, and how money can buy anything including seats on the Supreme Court Judges panel. It shows that lawyer Ron Fisk, despite believing himself to be in charge, is just a pawn in the game.

As usual I would love to say more, particularly about the ending, but obviously that would be giving far too much away and would spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book.

~Writing Style~

John Grisham has been a firm favourite of mine for many years, I have read just about every book he has written. Were some have disappointed me, The Appeal most certainly did not. The writing flows beautifully, Grisham doesn't waste valuable pages talking about the technicalities of the justice system, but he does subtly introduce the information you need to know, without it being preachy or seeming like you're reading a textbook.

On the front of the book there is a quote from the Daily Express, which states 'Nobody Does Legal Fiction Better', and its absolutely true. I've read a lot of legal fiction and Grisham is far and away the best in his field.

~My Thoughts~

If you haven't guessed, I thought this book was great. In parts I found it some what worrying however. Because I can truly imagine that in real life these big companies are just as ruthless and manipulative as they are in this book. And for them profits and the shareholders come before the rights of the 'little people', whether they be people living around the company or workers of the company.

It also made me think about the water we drink, how safe is it really? How do we know we aren't all being poisoned slowly but surely? Although I think that's just my over active imagination running away with me.

The book wasn't without its faults. I found the husband and wife team of Wes and Mary Grace Payton who took on the case to be a little too sickly sweet. Other people probably find it sweet and cute that a pair of lawyers would put their livelihoods, their home etc on the line for a client, but I found that just a little unrealistic.

The book certainly brought home how easy it is to manipulate individuals and society when there is enough money involved, and it made me glad that we don't have the same system of electing judges in this country.

After about a third of the book I thought to myself, 'I know how this is going to turn out'. But I was wrong, and I was even wrong about the second scenario I had after the first turned out to be wrong.

Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell

It has just taken me over 3 weeks to read this book, which is so unusual. The majority of the Scarpetta series I have read in a day or two, the one previous to this took a little longer at about a week. But this book was so awful I struggled to even get to the end.

It is such a shame because Patricia Cornwell has the ability to be such an excellent writer, but she has really let herself down badly with Book of the Dead, I haven't read a synopsis of the latest book Scarpetta, but I hope Patricia puts the series to rest in it, because judging by this one she's taken it a step too far.

Its hard to say why this book was so bad without giving too much away about the storyline (or lack thereof!), so beware if you are an absolute spoiler hater you'll probably want to stop reading here.

According to the synposis the book should be about Scarpetta and her newly opened private forensics lab, and the death of a tennis star, and the death of a young boy. All the things you'd except from a Scarpetta book. However the synopsis doesn't match the actual book itself.
What we actually get is two thirds of a book about Scarpetta's personal life and Benton's treatment of Dr Self in his clinic. Then we have a huge chunk of the book dedicated to Marino, his love life and his problems.
And as an after thought there are odd mentions of the deaths, a teeny bit of forensics thrown in, and finally in the last chapter or so the deaths are all wrapped up in a nice neat package.

But the package isnt that neat, because it leaves you wondering what on earth was all that about? There is nothing to really tell you why the bad guy or gal did what he or she did.

Its not that the Scarpetta series has avoided the personal lives of the characters, its just that they were always secondary to the main plots of the book.

I am so glad that I didnt pay for this book, that I actually just borrowed it from someone else, because if I'd bought it I think I'd be taking it back under the Sale of Goods Act - Not fit for the purpose. Because this book is certainly not a good read, or entertaining by any stretch of the imagination.

Scream for Me, Karen Rose

This was the first Karen Rose book I read, and I actually read them out of order because I should have read Die for Me first. However, even though the there were some references to Die For Me it didnt actually make any difference to reading this book, and it certainly didnt affect the enjoyment of it.

I didnt think I'd be able to find an author that could equal John Connolly but Karen Rose certainly does that. The book is perfectly paced and well written, it is one of those books were you think to yourself 'I'll just read one more chapter' and suddenly you find its 3am and you have work in four hours. The characters are believable and this allows the reader to invest in the character and sympathise/believe in them.

As succinctly as possible the plot revolves around Daniel Vartanian, a detective who tries to solve a murder from 13 yrs previous, which is somehow connected to his brother Simon.

Without giving too much away, his search leads him to connect up with Alex Fallon (female) who is also connected to the murder, but is also in danger.

To get the most out of this book I would suggest reading the books in order, because whilst it didnt spoil the enjoyment, when I eventually read the first book it did lead to a couple of 'now it makes sense' moments. But for anyone who likes crime/thiller novels then this is a great book, and Karen Rose is an excellent author.