Gray Mountain: A Bestselling Thrilling, Fast-Paced Suspense Story

The story was interesting , the lawyer involved Samantha was so pathetic it was unbelievable. she was not at all likeable and needed a good shake, I cannot imagine any law firm employing her no get up and go.Its a shame because with a more interesting female lead it would have been much better.I enjoyed learning about the power of the coal industry and how they treated people.it made me grateful that there are people willing to stand up to them. I hope this is true even though it is only a story.

This is not easy, fun entertainment - one of Grisham's usual sarcastic stories built on the flaws of the legal world. Elegant, hypnotic page-turners seducing the readers. This is the real world of day to day law in a poor, troubled part of America. There are no big laughs here, although within all the sadness Grisham's fine pen certainly manages to bring little smiles in spite of all the misery.Samantha Kofer, on furlough leave from BIG LAW firm in New York, gets a job as an unpaid intern in a legal aid clinic in small-town Appalachia. This is coal country. Meth country. Misery country. Everything as different from her life in New York as possible. We follow her in an entirely new kind of life where she meets real people. Poor, desperate and with little or no hope for the future.As always I admired Grisham's brilliant writing. Mesmerizing, in spite of the dark topic, the sad destinies, the tragedies. Not a book for those who is looking for happy, light entertainment. I needed to take a few breaks, especially in the first half of the book, struck by the endless misery. However, in the second half the action builds in the many cases handled by The Mountain Legal Aid Clinic in Brady, Virginia. Especially so when thousands of revealing documents are stolen from Krull Mining, resulting in involvement by the FBI and Samantha fearing for her life.I notice there are disappointed reviewers slaughtering "Gray Mountain". They are of course entitled to their opinion. I myself though, admire a totally different kind of work from John Grisham. A difficult, even courageous choice of topic from an author who usually gives us nothing but fun page-turners, elegant courtroom dramas to keep you awake all night.You may be surprised by this book. Struggle a bit with the many facts from the coal mining business. But in my opinion it's necessary and worth ones attention, not the least for the insight it gives into this ugly business and the many lawyers who spend their lives fighting both for the environment and the poor coal miners who desperately need their help. The "players" in this book make a most interesting gallery of personalities, brilliantly described by the author. In fact, I sincerely hope there will be a sequel following up on the fine heroine Samantha Kofer.Highly recommended.

I found this to be one of JG's worst books. There is very little that actually happens or concludes. No cases get finalised, what happened to the plane is never explained or expanded, the male lead has a tendency to keep going away for a few days for no discernible reason. The characters are pretty soulless and as seems to be a bit of a trend now, problems are solved with one quick phonecall to the protagonists parent who happens to have a very high powered job. This book might be salvageable if it is part of a series or trilogy but as a stand alone novel it is dire. If it was a debut novel by an unknown it would have been panned!! Avoid!!

I read this on the plane back from my first ever trip to New York and Washington, and was bowelled over by its vivid descriptions of life for a young ambitious lawyer in both places, who was thrown out of her job in the 2008 crash. it was great to have such a strong female heroine, and such vivid descriptions of how this particular moment in history felt, with the dizzying collapse from striving yuppy to - apparently - the end of the known world. Yes, the ending dribbles away a bit, but I was sad to see the rather hostile reviews for this one, which I definitely did not agree with - and bought this copy of the book as an Xmas present for an old friend, who has enjoyed it

A very disappointing read. I like Grisham but I wonder if he's past his best. When I read this and was part-way through you could tell how it weould end. There were too many odd little stories and odd temporary chsaracters., so that I wondered if it was really a collectiion of short story ides that he joined together to make a book! Not enough law, too much sex. Beyyer luck next time !"