Rogue Lawyer

It's been a too long while since I read a book that kept me so entertained and one that I did not want to finish. I reached the last page and I was dazed, I wanted more of it.

Full disclosure: I'm a John Grisham fan and so far I only had praise for his books.

To start off, things were moving very fast. Sometimes John Grisham's books are unexpected. Sebastian Rudd is a matter-of-fact guy, he goes straight to the point and he doesn't flourish anything. It took me very little to get into Rogue Lawyer, into this particular storytelling, and I was hooked not even two chapters in, and that's not much. The chapters are very short, some aren't even one page long, in my copy I think the longest was somewhere around 10 pages with most of them being 3-5 pages long. It's no wonder I read it so fast. I'm still a little dazed and need to recover, and I'm afraid it will be hard to get into another book so soon. I will try, though.

Sebastian Rudd is not the most ethical lawyer out there and he sure is colourful, but it was almost impossible to not like him. He's driven by a strong sense of justice and that swooped me off my feet. I might not approve his every stop in the journey, but I approve the end goal.

Part three of the book, the one about the warrior cops, brought me the most satisfaction. It was horrible what happened, but Rudd's performance in court made me both smug and emotional. Way to go! And Jillian's story was the hardest to read about, what awful things happened there... I shuddered in disgust reading those parts and I felt incredibly sad. The other cases were just as engaging and very interesting. I loved the wide range of clients Rudd had and the way he managed them all. Reading about his adventures, his tumultuous career, I really got to like Rudd and sympathise with him. I appreciated his manner of not kicking around the bush and his honesty.

The book is very fast paced, it has six parts, each dealing with a different case, but they are all connected by Sebastian Rudd. The cases happen linearly so it's more like Rudd's journal, let's say, where he writes about his clients, but also about his personal life. Despite this, I never felt like the book is a short story collection, Rogue Lawyer felt very much like a proper novel, one that has parts. About it being fast paced, it sure made me read faster and lose myself in the novel, but it had a downside too, and that was the ending. The book ended in the same manner, it felt abrupt to me. I'm still going to rate it very high because, hey, it's all in character, it doesn't deviate, it doesn't snuggle you in before being done and that's okay.

I'm not sure I made a lot of sense, so bottom line, I liked the book very much and I liked Sebastian Rudd very much.

May not be Grisham's best but I liked it over the last couple I read. Quick paced, multi-plotted story told in first person. I did feel that there was a bit too much telling rather than showing though.

Minor Grisham book. Of course the prose is always good, but the story is disjointed with several parts that are fillers and don't connect to each other in any meaningful way. Quick and harmless read but not long lasting in the memory.