Finished Th 8/30/19
This is one of my ancient paperbacks. I apparently had not read it and no idea how long I've owned it.
Published in 1974 and set in 70's Detroit. Leonard wrote 'GET SHORTY' and dozens of other great books. Known as 'THE DICKENS OF DETROIT'.
The book was made into a movie in 1986 starring Roy Scheider and Ann-Margret; John Frankenheimer directs
link to author's page at wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmore_Leonard
Mitch (Harry Mitchell) is a small business owner who has an affair with a much younger woman, Cini. He is married to Barb, but the marriage has gone stale, yet he still loves his wife.
Suddenly he finds that he is the victim of a shakedown. If he doesn't pay a hundred thousand dollars, his affair will be revealed to his wife.
The Bad Guys:
Leo Franks- runs a 'modeling agency'. Men pay to 'watch' a girl nude. She undresses and they watch.
Bobby Shy- a Black thug who drinks at the strip club with the other bad guys.
Doreen- Black girlfriend of Bobby's and works at the 'modeling agency'.
Alan Raimy - runs an 'art' theater. Sleazy sex films.
Mitch doesn't pay, so the bad guys murder Cini on camera using Mitch's gun.
Mitch gets all of the bad guys pictures and finds out where they live, work, and hang out.
O'Boyle is Mitch's lawyer and helps him fight back
Alan kills the other members of his crew, and Mitch kills Alan at the money transfer. He rigs the case with explosives.
Mitch and Barbara rekindle their marriage.
From the back of the book:
"Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell was having a mid-life crisis. ...And now he had a problem with porn movies. He was in one... A man with a stocking over his head and a .38 in his hand wanted a hundred grand to keep Harry's picture out of circulation. But the hoods behind this blackmail scam made a big mistake when they fingered Harry Mitchell for their pigeon. ,,,And the more they got him mad, the more certain it was that the only pay-off Harry planned was getting even. "
Friday, August 30, 2019
Saturday, August 17, 2019
SELLING OUT by Dan Wakefield
Finished Fr 8/16/19
This is an ancient hardback that I purchased at the library sidewalk sale on Sa 6/19/95 and had never read.
I really liked the novel and it's a nice companion piece to John Gregory Dunne's, 'THE STUDIO' that I finished last week. Both provide insight into the movie industry of the last century. I'd sure like to read a book about the way things are handled today.
Perry and Jane Moss are the perfect couple. He's a tenured professor in a small Vermont college where he's a revered English teacher, and Jane is a published photographer.
They are soul mates, best friends, and still very much in love.
Perry gets an offer to travel to Hollywood and transform one of his published short stories into a television series.
They travel to Hollywood and at first, Perry resists the idea. He feels that his style of writing is far above 'Tinseltown', but Jane makes him give it a chance. She convinces him that he will 'elevate' the projects that he's given.
Everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. After a while, Jane returns to Vermont. She immediately sees that Perry has sold his soul, and this sickens her. She wants to return to what they had, but Perry maintains that they can have it both ways.
Perry spirals out of control, and never quite grasps the moral and ethical climate of the entertainment industry.
It's 'Feast or Famine', and nothing in between, and any moral code gives way to the power of money. Yet money is not the final object of desire, it's the power that it represents.
Example:
When a producer is dropped from a multi-million dollar project this is not seen as a failure, but a win. The fact that he was involved in a project of this magnitude is seen as an unqualified success, and the fact that he lost it is not important. He has proven that he can 'play with the big boys', and his course is set.
The book is easily written, but maybe a little cliched, but I still enjoyed it very much.
Kirkus Review:
"Perry Moss, 42, teaches at Haviland College in southern Vermont, publishes stories in Partisan Review and Playboy, lives happily with second wife Jane, a serious photographer: ""They were tweed. They were corduroy and cotton, with red flannel nightshirts in winter."" But when whiz-kid Archer Mellis, new TV-dept. chief at Paragon Films, decides to turn one of Perry's stories into a TV-series, the tweedy couple flies out for a sojourn in Tinseltown. And so begins an essentially familiar tale of selling out--as Perry, in Hollywood to write the pilot-episode, all too quickly goes Hollywood. . . to Jane's escalating dismay. True, at first Perry is put off by the glitz and the crassness, by boss Mellis, who dresses ""like a Castro-trained insurgent guerrilla."" But his colleagues--exec-producer Ned, director Kenton--are classy guys with theater backgrounds; they're encouraged to make ""The First Year's the Hardest"" (about newlyweds in academia) ""quality"" TV; the pilot turns into a two-hour TV-movie that gets good reviews and high ratings. So all of a sudden Perry is ""hot,"" and keeps putting off the return to Vermont as the show-biz possibilities proliferate. He's horny and high on power and glamour--his voice gets deeper and deeper--while Jane, fed up and neglected, heads home alone. Even after the TV-series production turns into a nightmare (crazy-quilt directives from network bozos, staff purges, disastrous ratings), unemployed Perry determines to stick it out in L.A., somehow get ""hot"" again; he maintains manic optimism with an assist from cocaine, blithely sacrificing his professorial tenure back home; he betrays exec-producer Ned, who's virtually the only gentleman in southern California. But finally, of course, after a farcical interlude with loony producer Larman Kling (""Harpo Marx with a voice"") and a script about a psychic dog, Perry realizes that he'd ""forgotten about friends. Forgotten about everything that mattered. Or used to matter."" And there's a saccharine fadeout on Perry returning to Vermont, ""moving toward the woman he loved."" Wakefield, a novelist (Going All the Way) who has done time in TV (James at 15), fills out this thin, predictable scenario with enough insider-ish, cartoony details to provide fairly steady amusement for media mavens. (One highlight: the moans and murmurs that ensue--""It's genocide. . .""--when Perry's series is scheduled opposite Dallas.) But there's too much blandness and sentimentality here for all-out Tinseltown satire--while Perry, instantly corrupted and superficially redeemed, is too much of a clown to take seriously."
A link to the author's page on wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Wakefield
This is an ancient hardback that I purchased at the library sidewalk sale on Sa 6/19/95 and had never read.
I really liked the novel and it's a nice companion piece to John Gregory Dunne's, 'THE STUDIO' that I finished last week. Both provide insight into the movie industry of the last century. I'd sure like to read a book about the way things are handled today.
Perry and Jane Moss are the perfect couple. He's a tenured professor in a small Vermont college where he's a revered English teacher, and Jane is a published photographer.
They are soul mates, best friends, and still very much in love.
Perry gets an offer to travel to Hollywood and transform one of his published short stories into a television series.
They travel to Hollywood and at first, Perry resists the idea. He feels that his style of writing is far above 'Tinseltown', but Jane makes him give it a chance. She convinces him that he will 'elevate' the projects that he's given.
Everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. After a while, Jane returns to Vermont. She immediately sees that Perry has sold his soul, and this sickens her. She wants to return to what they had, but Perry maintains that they can have it both ways.
Perry spirals out of control, and never quite grasps the moral and ethical climate of the entertainment industry.
It's 'Feast or Famine', and nothing in between, and any moral code gives way to the power of money. Yet money is not the final object of desire, it's the power that it represents.
Example:
When a producer is dropped from a multi-million dollar project this is not seen as a failure, but a win. The fact that he was involved in a project of this magnitude is seen as an unqualified success, and the fact that he lost it is not important. He has proven that he can 'play with the big boys', and his course is set.
The book is easily written, but maybe a little cliched, but I still enjoyed it very much.
Kirkus Review:
"Perry Moss, 42, teaches at Haviland College in southern Vermont, publishes stories in Partisan Review and Playboy, lives happily with second wife Jane, a serious photographer: ""They were tweed. They were corduroy and cotton, with red flannel nightshirts in winter."" But when whiz-kid Archer Mellis, new TV-dept. chief at Paragon Films, decides to turn one of Perry's stories into a TV-series, the tweedy couple flies out for a sojourn in Tinseltown. And so begins an essentially familiar tale of selling out--as Perry, in Hollywood to write the pilot-episode, all too quickly goes Hollywood. . . to Jane's escalating dismay. True, at first Perry is put off by the glitz and the crassness, by boss Mellis, who dresses ""like a Castro-trained insurgent guerrilla."" But his colleagues--exec-producer Ned, director Kenton--are classy guys with theater backgrounds; they're encouraged to make ""The First Year's the Hardest"" (about newlyweds in academia) ""quality"" TV; the pilot turns into a two-hour TV-movie that gets good reviews and high ratings. So all of a sudden Perry is ""hot,"" and keeps putting off the return to Vermont as the show-biz possibilities proliferate. He's horny and high on power and glamour--his voice gets deeper and deeper--while Jane, fed up and neglected, heads home alone. Even after the TV-series production turns into a nightmare (crazy-quilt directives from network bozos, staff purges, disastrous ratings), unemployed Perry determines to stick it out in L.A., somehow get ""hot"" again; he maintains manic optimism with an assist from cocaine, blithely sacrificing his professorial tenure back home; he betrays exec-producer Ned, who's virtually the only gentleman in southern California. But finally, of course, after a farcical interlude with loony producer Larman Kling (""Harpo Marx with a voice"") and a script about a psychic dog, Perry realizes that he'd ""forgotten about friends. Forgotten about everything that mattered. Or used to matter."" And there's a saccharine fadeout on Perry returning to Vermont, ""moving toward the woman he loved."" Wakefield, a novelist (Going All the Way) who has done time in TV (James at 15), fills out this thin, predictable scenario with enough insider-ish, cartoony details to provide fairly steady amusement for media mavens. (One highlight: the moans and murmurs that ensue--""It's genocide. . .""--when Perry's series is scheduled opposite Dallas.) But there's too much blandness and sentimentality here for all-out Tinseltown satire--while Perry, instantly corrupted and superficially redeemed, is too much of a clown to take seriously."
A link to the author's page on wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Wakefield
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD by James Lee Burke
Finished Tu 8/13/19
This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I finished Sa 2/9/02 and bought at the North Branch for fifty cents.
This is the first in the Hollander Series and was published in 1971. It features Hackenberry Holland.
Hack is a lawyer with a rich family history. His grandfather was a sheriff and captured John Wesley Hardin. He knocked him off his horse and dragged him to jail. There are six bullet holes in the columns of Hack's front porch from Hardin's gun.
Hack is married to Verisa. She is a social climber and sticks with Hack because she believes he has a future in Texas politics.
Hack is partnered with his older brother, Baily, in a local law firm. Baily constantly complains to Hack about his drinking and his lackadaisical approach to their law practice.
Hack is deeply unhappy and uses huge amounts of Jack Daniels, beer, and wine to ease his pain.
Hack served in the Korean War and spent several months in a North Korean prison camp. He was shot through both calves and nearly died in captivity.
He is deeply conflicted about how he acted. He feels that he might have 'cooperated' with the enemy.
A man that he served with is a labor organizer and contacts Hack. The man is jailed on trumped up charges.
Hack travels to the border and takes the case. He meets the lovely Rie Valasquez who is of college age and helps organize the union.
They begin an affair.
Excellent descriptions of excessive drinking. Hack seems to always be driving the highways between San Antonio and Houston drunk (yet in command) in his Cadillac.
An excellent description of being in a labor demonstration and beaten by the police.
Excellent descriptions of life in a Korean prison camp.
I absolutely loved the book and will try to read everything by James Lee Burke.
From Google Books
"Vintage James Lee Burke: The first novel introducing the memorable Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland, coming of age against the backdrop of the civil rights era in a sultry border town.
In hot and sultry Texas, Hack, an attorney and Korean War POW, is being pushed by his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends in the oil business to run for political office. But Hack would prefer to drink, look after his beloved horses, and represent the occasional long-shot pro bono case at his law firm. When Hack attempts to overturn a conviction for an old army buddy, he finds himself embroiled in the seamy underbelly of the Texas patronage system—and in the earliest beginnings of the United Farm Workers movement, led by a beautiful woman who speaks to his heart in a way no one else has. As Hack begins to bring justice to the underserved, he finds both a new love and a new purpose.
With his skillful blend of engaging plotlines, compelling characters, and graceful prose, James Lee Burke demonstrates the shimmering clarity of vision that has made him beloved by suspense fans all over the globe."
This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I finished Sa 2/9/02 and bought at the North Branch for fifty cents.
This is the first in the Hollander Series and was published in 1971. It features Hackenberry Holland.
Hack is a lawyer with a rich family history. His grandfather was a sheriff and captured John Wesley Hardin. He knocked him off his horse and dragged him to jail. There are six bullet holes in the columns of Hack's front porch from Hardin's gun.
Hack is married to Verisa. She is a social climber and sticks with Hack because she believes he has a future in Texas politics.
Hack is partnered with his older brother, Baily, in a local law firm. Baily constantly complains to Hack about his drinking and his lackadaisical approach to their law practice.
Hack is deeply unhappy and uses huge amounts of Jack Daniels, beer, and wine to ease his pain.
Hack served in the Korean War and spent several months in a North Korean prison camp. He was shot through both calves and nearly died in captivity.
He is deeply conflicted about how he acted. He feels that he might have 'cooperated' with the enemy.
A man that he served with is a labor organizer and contacts Hack. The man is jailed on trumped up charges.
Hack travels to the border and takes the case. He meets the lovely Rie Valasquez who is of college age and helps organize the union.
They begin an affair.
Excellent descriptions of excessive drinking. Hack seems to always be driving the highways between San Antonio and Houston drunk (yet in command) in his Cadillac.
An excellent description of being in a labor demonstration and beaten by the police.
Excellent descriptions of life in a Korean prison camp.
I absolutely loved the book and will try to read everything by James Lee Burke.
From Google Books
"Vintage James Lee Burke: The first novel introducing the memorable Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland, coming of age against the backdrop of the civil rights era in a sultry border town.
In hot and sultry Texas, Hack, an attorney and Korean War POW, is being pushed by his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends in the oil business to run for political office. But Hack would prefer to drink, look after his beloved horses, and represent the occasional long-shot pro bono case at his law firm. When Hack attempts to overturn a conviction for an old army buddy, he finds himself embroiled in the seamy underbelly of the Texas patronage system—and in the earliest beginnings of the United Farm Workers movement, led by a beautiful woman who speaks to his heart in a way no one else has. As Hack begins to bring justice to the underserved, he finds both a new love and a new purpose.
With his skillful blend of engaging plotlines, compelling characters, and graceful prose, James Lee Burke demonstrates the shimmering clarity of vision that has made him beloved by suspense fans all over the globe."
Sunday, August 11, 2019
THE STUDIO by John Gregory Dunne
Finished Sa 8/10/19
This is a trade paperback that I have apparently not read, and there is no note as to when I bought it. When I watched the latest version of, 'A STAR IS BORN', I was surprised to learn that John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion wrote the 1976 version with Barbra Streisand and Kris, and just by accident I noticed the book on the shelf.
In 1967 Dunne was given permission to study all of the workings of the 20th Century Fox film and television studios. Three 'big' films were being produced during this time period; THE BOSTON STRANGLER, PLANET OF THE APES, and DR. DOLITTLE.
Richard Zanuck, the son of Daryl Zanuck, is running the studio. Fox had been around since the late nineteenth century and largely in the hands of the Zanucks.
This period was at the end of the idea that studios would hire many young actors, keep them under contract, teach them the craft of acting, and then use them exclusively in the studio's productions.
They would be paid $250 a week or about $2000 in today's money.
If a 'student' was in a hit show he or she would be asked to make paid appearances. They could be paid many thousands of dollars, but the studio had the right keep this money. However, if the show was a really big hit, the 'student's' lawyers would have more leverage to renegotiate.
Because 'THE SOUND OF MUSIC' did so well at opening in Minneapolis, so the three 1967 pictures opened there.
'DR. DOLITTLE' opening and several scenes and songs were cut before the grand opening in Los Angeles. However, at the Minneapolis opening the film's title was not released to the audience. The people just went in 'cold' to see a new release. This hurt 'DOLITTLE' because this kept out the younger audience.
There are a lot of behind the scenes anecdotes about the film making process and how much input the bosses and owners really had.
That was my biggest takeaway. Old, rich, white men really decided what was going to be made.
From the book's page at amazon:
" For one year Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of pictures like "Dr. Dolittle," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Boston Strangler." The result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny portrait of the motion picture business."
The book is obviously dated, and I wonder what the inner workings are like today. It's a slim book and I read it in a couple of days.
This is a trade paperback that I have apparently not read, and there is no note as to when I bought it. When I watched the latest version of, 'A STAR IS BORN', I was surprised to learn that John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion wrote the 1976 version with Barbra Streisand and Kris, and just by accident I noticed the book on the shelf.
In 1967 Dunne was given permission to study all of the workings of the 20th Century Fox film and television studios. Three 'big' films were being produced during this time period; THE BOSTON STRANGLER, PLANET OF THE APES, and DR. DOLITTLE.
Richard Zanuck, the son of Daryl Zanuck, is running the studio. Fox had been around since the late nineteenth century and largely in the hands of the Zanucks.
This period was at the end of the idea that studios would hire many young actors, keep them under contract, teach them the craft of acting, and then use them exclusively in the studio's productions.
They would be paid $250 a week or about $2000 in today's money.
If a 'student' was in a hit show he or she would be asked to make paid appearances. They could be paid many thousands of dollars, but the studio had the right keep this money. However, if the show was a really big hit, the 'student's' lawyers would have more leverage to renegotiate.
Because 'THE SOUND OF MUSIC' did so well at opening in Minneapolis, so the three 1967 pictures opened there.
'DR. DOLITTLE' opening and several scenes and songs were cut before the grand opening in Los Angeles. However, at the Minneapolis opening the film's title was not released to the audience. The people just went in 'cold' to see a new release. This hurt 'DOLITTLE' because this kept out the younger audience.
There are a lot of behind the scenes anecdotes about the film making process and how much input the bosses and owners really had.
That was my biggest takeaway. Old, rich, white men really decided what was going to be made.
From the book's page at amazon:
" For one year Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of pictures like "Dr. Dolittle," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Boston Strangler." The result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny portrait of the motion picture business."
The book is obviously dated, and I wonder what the inner workings are like today. It's a slim book and I read it in a couple of days.
Thursday, August 8, 2019
THE HIT by David Baldacci
Finished We 8/7/19
This is a paperback that Janny loaned to me.
Will Robie and Jessica Reel are sophisticated, elite members of the American intelligence service. They are both experts in assassination and all forms of 'wet work'.
Reel seems to have gone rogue, but it seems that she has uncovered a secret program within the services called 'The Apocalypse Report'. This is a program designed to take out all heads of important nations except for the US. This will introduce chaos and America can step in and regain its' unilateral power.
Reel kills a few members of the intelligence community. She is convinced that they are part of the evil program, but her bosses view it as proof that she has gone over to the dark side.
Robie is assigned to take out Reel. Then he learns of the secret agenda and comes to believe that Jessica is not a traitor, but a patriot.
Female investigator Vance is a friend of Robie's and helps him and Reel.
The meeting where all world leaders assemble is in Switzerland. Reel and Robie learn that this is not where 'the hit' will occur. It's actually at a Canadian meeting. Reel and Robie fly to Canada and shut down the program before the leaders are harmed. Vance alerts the FBI to prevent the attack. This was a meeting of Middle Eastern leaders and would cause total world-wide chaos.
Romance between Reel and Robie is implied at the end of the novel.
Maybe a bit hard to believe, yet the the story-line is compelling and the book is hard to put down. A very good 'Beach' or 'Airport' read.
This is a paperback that Janny loaned to me.
Will Robie and Jessica Reel are sophisticated, elite members of the American intelligence service. They are both experts in assassination and all forms of 'wet work'.
Reel seems to have gone rogue, but it seems that she has uncovered a secret program within the services called 'The Apocalypse Report'. This is a program designed to take out all heads of important nations except for the US. This will introduce chaos and America can step in and regain its' unilateral power.
Reel kills a few members of the intelligence community. She is convinced that they are part of the evil program, but her bosses view it as proof that she has gone over to the dark side.
Robie is assigned to take out Reel. Then he learns of the secret agenda and comes to believe that Jessica is not a traitor, but a patriot.
Female investigator Vance is a friend of Robie's and helps him and Reel.
The meeting where all world leaders assemble is in Switzerland. Reel and Robie learn that this is not where 'the hit' will occur. It's actually at a Canadian meeting. Reel and Robie fly to Canada and shut down the program before the leaders are harmed. Vance alerts the FBI to prevent the attack. This was a meeting of Middle Eastern leaders and would cause total world-wide chaos.
Romance between Reel and Robie is implied at the end of the novel.
Maybe a bit hard to believe, yet the the story-line is compelling and the book is hard to put down. A very good 'Beach' or 'Airport' read.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
GRAY MOUNTAIN by John Grisham
Finished Fr 8/2/19
This is a paperback that Janny loaned to me.
The book is an excellent primer on the effects of 'strip mining' on the environment.
The process of strip mining involves dynamiting mountains looking for seams of coal. The hardwood is removed first. The timber is not used, but pushed to the side. Then layers are removed as in a cake.
One case in the book is about how a large boulder was blown off of a mountain and it lands in a trailer, killing two boys.
Large pools or lakes of toxic coal waste are created. If a damn breaks, an environmental disaster can be created bigger than Exxon Valdez. This has happened yet the coal companies are so politically strong, that the news is blocked.
Some of the highest cancer rates are found in the Appalachian mountains due to these 'lakes' that poison the ground water.
Federal law requires that miners be compensated for 'black lung'. The companies stall, and sometimes the families do not receive payments until long after the miner is dead.
The companies have some of the best legal counsel in the world.
STORY-LINE:
During the economic meltdown of 2008 Samantha is placed on leave from a 'white shoe' NYC law firm. She is not happy with the crushing workload and the dull work. The deal is that she might be rehired in a year. She receives no pay, but she keeps her health benefits. However, the company gives her a list of places that she can work pro bono. Samantha travels to very rural West Virginia and becomes a legal aid for Mattie. Mattie has two lawyers working under her and their practice is to offer free legal service to the poor in the area.
They specialize in domestic violence, black lung, and helping the miners' families to combat the legal staff or the coal companies.
Donovan is Mattie's nephew. He is working on a large case against the coal companies. He has a small plane and uses it to fly to different clients. Near the middle of the novel, Donovan dies in a plane crash. Jeff, his brother, is certain that he was murdered by the coal company.
Jeff is not a lawyer, but works as an investigator for Donovan.
Samantha and Jeff begin an affair. It's not love, just lust. Jeff is scheming to keep Samantha working in the area, and she is conflicted. She feels more comfortable in the 'Big Apple', but she's very sympathetic to the plight of her rural clients.
'THE BIG CASE'
Donovan and Jeff entered a coal company building and stole documents that proved that the coal company was well aware that one of their miners was suffering 'black lung', yet they continued to deny that he had the disease and falsely denied his benefits. This is truly a big deal and could bring the coal company a disastrous settlement and lots of negative press.
Andy, Samantha's old boss in NYC, tries to lure her back with an offer of less hours and a more relaxed working environment.
In the end of the novel, Samantha decides to stay with Mattie in the near future and tells Andy, "NO".
Link to the novel's page at wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Mountain_(Grisham_novel)
The book is paced as a thriller, yet it's really a 'beach' or 'airport' read. Not that this is a bad thing. Not much shading in character development, yet the story is very compelling.
Anything by Grisham is worth a look.
This is a paperback that Janny loaned to me.
The book is an excellent primer on the effects of 'strip mining' on the environment.
The process of strip mining involves dynamiting mountains looking for seams of coal. The hardwood is removed first. The timber is not used, but pushed to the side. Then layers are removed as in a cake.
One case in the book is about how a large boulder was blown off of a mountain and it lands in a trailer, killing two boys.
Large pools or lakes of toxic coal waste are created. If a damn breaks, an environmental disaster can be created bigger than Exxon Valdez. This has happened yet the coal companies are so politically strong, that the news is blocked.
Some of the highest cancer rates are found in the Appalachian mountains due to these 'lakes' that poison the ground water.
Federal law requires that miners be compensated for 'black lung'. The companies stall, and sometimes the families do not receive payments until long after the miner is dead.
The companies have some of the best legal counsel in the world.
STORY-LINE:
During the economic meltdown of 2008 Samantha is placed on leave from a 'white shoe' NYC law firm. She is not happy with the crushing workload and the dull work. The deal is that she might be rehired in a year. She receives no pay, but she keeps her health benefits. However, the company gives her a list of places that she can work pro bono. Samantha travels to very rural West Virginia and becomes a legal aid for Mattie. Mattie has two lawyers working under her and their practice is to offer free legal service to the poor in the area.
They specialize in domestic violence, black lung, and helping the miners' families to combat the legal staff or the coal companies.
Donovan is Mattie's nephew. He is working on a large case against the coal companies. He has a small plane and uses it to fly to different clients. Near the middle of the novel, Donovan dies in a plane crash. Jeff, his brother, is certain that he was murdered by the coal company.
Jeff is not a lawyer, but works as an investigator for Donovan.
Samantha and Jeff begin an affair. It's not love, just lust. Jeff is scheming to keep Samantha working in the area, and she is conflicted. She feels more comfortable in the 'Big Apple', but she's very sympathetic to the plight of her rural clients.
'THE BIG CASE'
Donovan and Jeff entered a coal company building and stole documents that proved that the coal company was well aware that one of their miners was suffering 'black lung', yet they continued to deny that he had the disease and falsely denied his benefits. This is truly a big deal and could bring the coal company a disastrous settlement and lots of negative press.
Andy, Samantha's old boss in NYC, tries to lure her back with an offer of less hours and a more relaxed working environment.
In the end of the novel, Samantha decides to stay with Mattie in the near future and tells Andy, "NO".
Link to the novel's page at wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Mountain_(Grisham_novel)
The book is paced as a thriller, yet it's really a 'beach' or 'airport' read. Not that this is a bad thing. Not much shading in character development, yet the story is very compelling.
Anything by Grisham is worth a look.
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