Gray Mountain: A Novel Kindle Edition

What a complete waste of money as I gave up half way through and then skipped through pages here and there. I cannot believe that John Grisham wrote this rubbish no tension, no excitement and have read better characterizations in free books. I have loved his books in the past, couldn't put them down, and feel sad to see some reviewers saying this was the first book o his they read.Politi al ranting, and my pet hate American compensation lawyers that frankly stuff their pockets more than their clients.So many similar and sadly far better books regarding similar situations. As for the ednin, well it literally didn't end, it simply petered out.Please don't waste your money, I am angry that I ignored some of the poor reviews.

I'm a big John Grisham fan. I've enjoyed many of his books and thought it would be a no-brainer that Gray Mountain would be a good read. There are both pros and cons to reading this book. The cons are that the story, for the most part, plods along, and the protagonist is uninspired. But several of the other characters are interesting, passionate, and admirable, choosing to fight for the poor and disadvantaged with little personal economic reward. They fight in a bureaucratic morass, and its interesting to see what legal challenges they overcome. What this book has to offer, that I appreciate most, is an education on coal mining, and the brave and courageous efforts put forth by a handful of law firms to fight this powerful, ruthless industry. This is truly a David and Goliath story. Hardly a day goes by since reading this book that I haven't thought about the systematic destruction of men and nature by this industry, and how it incites fear in the environmentalists and lawyers fighting back. My hat is off to these heroes for their hard won achievements. Now with Trump in office, one of the first things the GOP did was allow coal companies to again dump thousands of tons of toxic black sludge into pristine creeks and streams, poisoning people and animals. A heartbreaking travesty. Linda Berry is the Author of Hidden Part One and Pretty Corpse.

Haven't read Grisham since his earliest and enjoyed them so I was curious. This is irritating - not with tension and pacing - characters, dialogue, structure, and research. I learned exactly what strip mining is in about three paragraphs - good to know. Unfortunately, the book drones on about it ad nauseum. Big Coal is Bad just like other Big Industry at some point. Poor people are beated by the system. So what's new in the telling? Nothing. Worse, the main character has one parent who is senior in the Justice Dept who could've launched an investigation into the illegal activities in a heartbeat yet doesn't bother to point it out, pack her bags, and return to Manhattan. Mom's investigation would've been a lot more interesting.

This is the first Grisham book I've read and I'm left wondering what the fuss is about. I tried a sample and was intrigued by the protagonist, Samantha. I balked at first at the cost (why are e-books, with no printing costs, so expensive?) but decided to chance it since this is a big name author. By the end of the book I still had no idea what Samantha looked like or if she wore clothes. Admittedly, there may have been descriptions buried in there because it didn't take too long before I started skimming in a desperate search for dialog. This novel read more like an informational dump on coal mining, with the author preaching his views. By the first third of the book, we all get the fact that coal companies are the villain. We as readers don't need to be reminded, in great narrative length, repeatedly. The protagonist seemed to exist simply to give a reason to call this fiction. She never, at any point in the story, was ever at risk. Each time tension started to build, where it seemed like, finally, she was going to play the part of a protagonist, the plot fizzled. There were moments that made no sense, as when on one page Samantha is thinking how much she's not going to get involved and can't stand the guy, and the next page they are in bed together and she's helping him. But the worst things an author can do that make me, as a reader, never return to one of their books, ever again, are these. The protagonist was not a likable character (by the end of the book I was very tired of her whining, then doing the opposite of what she whined about, with nothing to show the change of heart). The characters were cardboard, inconsistent, and simply vessels to deliver the author's preaching against coal mining. None of the questions posed in the plot were ever answered. None of the villains ever brought to justice. The people that Samantha agreed to help, whose stories took many, many confusing pages, never have resolution to their problems, and she simply walks away from them. And the book ended with no change from the beginning - meaning no character growth, no change in the plot premise, nothing. In other words, there was no reason to read the book. I could just have easily gone online, researched coal mining, and ended up with the same result. And without spending money.

This book is BORING. I've read all JG's books, some I've enjoyed more than others but this is the only one I'm truly stuggling to finish. (Playing for Pizza was another one which was abysmal). I know some people think John Grisham can walk on water, but this flat. monotonous, stodgy book proves otherwise. Sorry but thought I ought to warn you.

Unlike some reviewers, I rather enjoyed this book!If you go to Snowdonia in North Wales, you will find the Dinorwig Slate Museum. They tell the story of "How to steal a Mountain".Well, this is similar but set in West Virginia and the big corporations are mining coal - with no scruples or consideration for the law, the environment and the local inhabitants and workers.So, we are set once more for a story of a minnow versus the giant corporations. Our leading lady has just been made effectively redundant ('furloughed') from a large law firm in New York and she moves to Brady to join a small law firm offering legal aid to the poor and needy. She has never been involved in litigation before so, with the help of some locals, can she beat the big boys?I thought it was an excellent read with a couple of unexpected twists to keep me on my toes!

This Grisham novel is set just after the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers that led to the global crash in 2008. Samantha Kofer is a young lawyer unhappily working for another New York legal firm which is feeling the pinch in the wake of the collapse, and is furloughed for a year with the uncertain assurance of a new job at the firm in a year's time if she does a period as an unpaid intern a long way from her home in the Big Apple. The internship she gets is working for a legal aid firm in Brady, Virginia that specialises in "black lung" cases, cases of miners with lung diseases through exposure to coal dust, and other cases where people have been killed due to negligence by unscrupulous mining companies, including poisoning of water supplies, and the destruction of whole mountains through strip-mining for coal. She gradually acquires a taste for helping "the little guy" in these cases, as opposed to her previous corporate clients. She also acquires new friends and enemies as some of the companies play dirty, both legally and physically in defending their claims. A good page turner with good themes of justice, though without the shining brilliance of some of Grisham's earlier classics.

Enjoyed this book. After reading other reviews wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. The main character isn't ,to my mind, your typical heroine. She is hesitant and and indecisive a lot of the time which makes her very human. Without giving anything away and spoil in the surprises, there was one in particular I really wasn't expecting and other minor ones. So to me this isn't your typical heroine is fearless and can do no wrong story and I found the ending acceptable. To provide definitive answers to all the open points, the novel would need to continue a few years into the future.

A decent commuter read by a legendary writer, but one that flatters to deceive. After chapters of scene-setting and some rudimentary character development, the tension starts to build, before an unfulfilling ending which is a bit of a cop-out. I feel as though there is a lack of depth in the plot (especially the ending) and that there are a number of ways the stories of this set of characters could have been developed and concluded more decisively.I feel a distinct lack of attachment to this. I was going to give it three stars, but during writing I've dropped it to two. As a big fan of 'The Grish', sadly this feels a bit 'meh'.