Book Review: Rogue Lawyer

Rogue Lawyer

Tucked deep inside John Grisham's Rogue Lawyer is this line about Sebastian Rudd, the rogue lawyer's pastimes - "I play my way south, hitting at least one course per day, sometimes two, playing alone with no caddie and no scorecard, paying cash for inexpensive motel rooms, eating little, and sipping bourbon late at night while I read the latest James Lee Burke or Michael Connelly." There you have it guys, Grisham's inspiration for his latest fall outing - Michael Connelly's "Lincoln Lawyer" Mickey Haller.

Just when I thought Grisham couldn't get any worse than Gray Mountain, here comes Rogue Lawyer to snatch away that title. As a long-time fan of his legal thrillers, this one, more a collection of short stories than a full-fledged novel* so that he can dispense with character development altogether, is a sound disappointment from start to finish replete with unlikeable characters and wafer-thin plotlines (the only interesting part was the story about a homeowner arrested for shooting at a SWAT team that had mistakenly invaded his house), yet for some inexplicable strange reason, I couldn't stop reading it. So that's some consolation!

*If you personally ask me, I think John Grisham should take a break. May be publishing a new book every year like clockwork is affecting the quality of work he is churning out. As far as Rogue Lawyer is concerned, it seemed to me as if he was simply pressured into writing it when he had no story in mind, as if he wrote this book without knowing where he was going to take it.