The Runaway Jury

A courtroom drama that — as the title implies — is focused on the jury rather than the parties or their lawyers. Grisham imagines a big product liability action against a tobacco company, where the future of the industry might be at stake in case the jury should find for the plaintiff. Both parties are using professional jury consultants to steer the selection of the jurors and monitor their response to the arguments as the trial proceeds, as well as trying to put a bit of discreet pressure on them in untraceable ways outside court, but then it starts to look as though someone else with access to what’s going on inside the jury is also playing the system somehow. Are they simply looking for a cut from the huge sums of money that show more are sloshing around, or is there something more devious going on?

Ingenious, and quite gripping for a while, but it is ultimately not so much a novel as a thought experiment investigating ways that the independence of the jury, supposedly the bedrock of Anglo-Saxon law, is likely to break down in practice in complex, high-value cases. (Juries disappeared from most civil cases in the UK a long time ago, for exactly the reasons Grisham explores here.) The characters are all stereotypes of one sort or another, some of them quite crude, and there’s not enough moral ambiguity to make it really interesting: we know from the start that the tobacco people are evil, ruthless and very, very rich, so however badly the plaintiffs behave, our sympathy is never going to be divided. show less

Runway Jury, is the more traditional Grisham, but a nifty suspense-filled story. I really enjoyed it. Lawyers will hate it, as it portrays them as terrible blood-sucking-win-at-any-cost malevolent characters. Fortunately, in this novel they get their due.
In this novel Grisham dissects the tobacco industry. Given the absolutely stunning amount of money involved in the recent class action suits against the tobacco companies, Grisham starts with the assumption, a quite reasonable one, that the industry lawyers will stop at nothing to prevent a decision going against them and they set aside a huge slush fund to pay for all sorts of dirty tricks.
Someone else decides to manipulate the jury results to their own profit (there’s a not show more unpredictable link to the anit-smokers involved, but what they do with the money is really nifty even if I didn’t quite understand how they did it). Soon the corporate lawyers are being sucked into a scheme they can’t control but think they might be able to manipulate. In the meantime they are sublty, and not so secretly, attempting to influence the jurors to their way of thinking.
Grisham knows how to write courtroom drama and this book has some of his best. show less

I'm normally a fan of John Grisham novels. There is a distinct plot, with a few sub plots to add twists, and the lead character is focused.

This book missed all of those check boxes.

There were multiple "lead" characters, from the different lawyers/firms to the members of the jury focused on for the main trial plot. Not a single character drew me in as worthy of a sympathetic follow, so I felt detached from the story.

Because of the many characters you had to follow and remember, you had a diffuse main plot, which bounced between the trial, the various lawyer shenanigans, and the people working to manipulate the case from behind the scenes. And the plots and subplots blurred together too much to be distinct.

I couldn't get past about a show more third of the book before I just gave up. I felt no urge to grab the book to read, which should have been a clue. show less

When I first read this story, the book had been out only a couple years. I enjoyed it very much at that time. On this latest re-read (2024), I had forgotten most of the plot so the narrative felt fresh. However, the prolonged shenanigans by the defense consultants and the repetitious details involving the jury-tampering made the story drag and derailed building the suspense.

It's still a pretty good story, and the final reveal with Fitch and 'Marlee' a great ending. Grisham is a generally excellent author so fans are sure to enjoy the tale, despite the draggy courtroom testimony.

Moral issues related to big tobacco companies are a hot topic in this novel and real life. The arguments—on both sides—made in this fictitious courtroom battle are thought-provoking, especially if you are a smoker. But then, The Runaway Jury is just a novel. Right? It's a crazy story of big-money purchasing votes, biased jurors, and corrupt lawyers. I found the story riveting and well-written, the characters fascinating, and the plot twists entertaining and suspenseful.

Readers, leave your morals at the door. There is something oddly satisfying about carefully-planned crime – the cleverer, the better. So, in the vein of Ocean's Eleven and Artemis Fowl, Grisham gives us The Runaway Jury – an absorbing, quick-paced tale of justice gone awry. The novel's premise of jury-rigging is utterly engrossing, and will grab readers' attention from the moment they figure out what's going on. Once Grisham has that attention, he holds it with ease. Nearly everything about his writing is short and sharp, from the punchy sentences to the many brief chapters. The pages practically turn themselves. If you're into losing track of the time, then this is the book for you.

There is always some level of suspense in The show more Runaway Jury. Grisham has a compelling knack for throwing readers into the middle of a puzzle and then feeding them the pieces, one by one – a knack which is established right from the very first page. He meticulously manages how much readers know, and how much they should be able to figure out at any given stage of the plot. The overall outcome is disappointingly predictable, but there are plenty of smaller twists and turns to keep readers guessing away in vain. Even more difficult is the task of pointing out right from wrong – Grisham's characters are all so deliciously crooked that readers won't know who to cheer for!

Much of The Runaway Jury takes place in a courtroom, so Grisham's experience as an attorney lends itself well to the narration. Having taken Legal Studies at school, I enjoyed the extra layer of realism, and found that it added a professional edge to the novel. Those with less interest in the law, however, may find the legal jargon confusing at times, and might need a few chapters to settle into the jury box.

With its intriguing ideas and energetic storyline, The Runaway Jury is a highly readable example of just how much fun the crime genre can be. Recommended especially for those with an interest in the justice system. show less

I read this a couple of years ago - it was my first John Grisham novel. Though I enjoy sci-fi novels, I'd heard plenty about Grisham and decided to give it a spin. I wasn't disappointed. I finished Rainmaker recently and while I think Rainmaker is better, that doesn't mean this is at all a bad read. Like Rainmaker, this is about little people v a big corporation. Rudy Baylor in Rainmaker was fleshed out, the characters in here are not as fleshed out, as the story concentrates on the individual members of the jury. I like that, it made for a unique kind of novel, and a highly enjoyable one, so 4/5 stars. Great work, Mr. Grisham!