Millions of dollars are at stake in a huge tobacco-company case in Biloxi, and the jury's packed with people who have dirty little secrets. A mysterious young man takes subtle control of the jury as the defense watches helplessly, but they soon realize that he in turn is controlled by an even more mysterious young woman. Lives careen off course as they bend everyone in the case to their will.


From Publishers Weekly
Grisham is either remarkably prescient or just plain lucky; because with public concerns about the tobacco companies heating up, and two major nonfiction books currently garnering a lot of attention, he has come up with a tobacco-suit novel that lights up the courtroom. In a Mississippi Gulf Coast town, the widow of a lifelong smoker who died prematurely of lung cancer is suing Big Tobacco. Enter Rankin Fitch, a dark genius of jury fixing, who has won many such trials for the tobacco companies and who foresees no special problems here. Enter also a mysterious juror, Nicholas Easter, whom Fitch's army of jury investigators and manipulators can't quite seem to track-and his equally mysterious girlfriend Marlee, who soon shows Fitch she knows even more about what's happening in the jury room than he does. The details of jury selection are fascinating and the armies of lawyerly hangers-on and overpaid consultants that surround such potentially profitable (to either side) cases are horribly convincing. The cat-and-mouse game played between Nicholas, Marlee and Fitch over the direction of the jury quickly becomes hair-raising as the stakes inch ever higher. As usual with Grisham, the writing is no more than workmanlike, the characterizations are alternatively thin and too broad, but all is redeemed by his patented combination of expertise and narrative drive. What makes The Runaway Jury his most rewarding novel to date is that it is fully enlisted in an issue of substance, in which arguments of genuine pith are hammered out and resolved in a manner that is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying. It's a thriller for people who think, and Jesse Helms won't like it one bit. First printing of 2.8 million; major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection. (May) ~ MysteryCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The Runaway Jury, Grisham's (The Rainmaker, Audio Reviews, LJ 6/15/95) new lesson on jury tampering and manipulation, pits the tobacco industry against the widow of a longtime smoker in a high-stakes product liability case. The financial implications of the case for the tobacco industry are vast, and thus all steps are taken to insure the "correct" verdict. This includes the pooling of a multimillion dollar fund managed by the amoral operator Rankin Fitch, who will use all manner of tactics to engineer the verdict. One juror has ideas of his own, however, and takes his own steps to insure a particular outcome. In fact, one problem with this story is that the listener isn't able to work up sympathy for either side in the case, as both are populated by underdeveloped characters and both attempt to tamper with the jury. Actor Michael Beck, who has read other Grisham novels for the same publisher, turns in an adequate performance of an uninspired novel. This will be popular, however, so purchase as demand requires.?Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, Ia.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Millions of dollars hang in the balance of the trial at the center of Grisham's latest legal thriller: a liability suit against the country's largest tobacco company. Fast-paced action blends with insight into the process of trial by jury. Frank Muller turns in a truly virtuoso performance, from different shades of Southern dialect to the computer-like voice of a man who has lost his voice box to cancer. Muller has never been better. P.B.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
First time in paperback.
"Marvelous!" --News-Tribune (Phoenix, Ariz.)
"Gripping." --The Seattle Times
"Marvelously Clever." --USA Today
"Entertainingly unpredictable!" --The New York Times
"Fascinating. . .high--powered narration." --Chicago Tribune
"His most rewarding novel to date." --Publishers Weekly
"A real page--turner!" --The Houston Chronicle
"Deserves to be a runaway success." --The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
"Ingeniously narrated." --Entertainment Weekly


Review
First time in paperback.
"Marvelous!" --News-Tribune (Phoenix, Ariz.)
"Gripping." --The Seattle Times
"Marvelously Clever." --USA Today
"Entertainingly unpredictable!" --The New York Times
"Fascinating. . .high--powered narration." --Chicago Tribune
"His most rewarding novel to date." --Publishers Weekly
"A real page--turner!" --The Houston Chronicle
"Deserves to be a runaway success." --The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
"Ingeniously narrated." --Entertainment Weekly


Book Description
He has waited for this moment.
He has planned his every move.
He has made it onto the jury in the most explosive trial of the century.
Now the verdict belongs to him. . . .They are at the center of a multimillion dollar legal hurricane: twelve men and women who have been investigated, watched, manipulated, and harassed by high-priced lawyers and consultants who will stop at nothing to secure a verdict. Now that the jury must make a decision in the most explosive trial of the century, a precedent-setting lawsuit against a giant tobacco company. But only a handful of people know the truth: that this jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him...He is known only as Juror #2. But he has a name, a past, and he has planned his every move with the help of a beautiful woman on the outside. Now, while a corporate empire hands in the balance, while a grieving family waits, and while lawyers are plunged into a battle for their careers, the truth about Juror #2 is about to explode, in a cross fire of greed and corruption--and with justice fighting for its life...


From the Publisher

First time in paperback.
"Marvelous!" --News-Tribune (Phoenix, Ariz.)
"Gripping." --The Seattle Times
"Marvelously Clever." --USA Today
"Entertainingly unpredictable!" --The New York Times
"Fascinating. . .high--powered narration." --Chicago Tribune
"His most rewarding novel to date." --Publishers Weekly
"A real page--turner!" --The Houston Chronicle
"Deserves to be a runaway success." --The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
"Ingeniously narrated." --Entertainment Weekly


From the Inside Flap
He has waited for this moment.
He has planned his every move.
He has made it onto the jury in the most explosive trial of the century.
Now the verdict belongs to him. . . .

They are at the center of a multimillion dollar legal hurricane: twelve men and women who have been investigated, watched, manipulated, and harassed by high-priced lawyers and consultants who will stop at nothing to secure a verdict. Now that the jury must make a decision in the most explosive trial of the century, a precedent-setting lawsuit against a giant tobacco company. But only a handful of people know the truth: that this jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him...

He is known only as Juror #2. But he has a name, a past, and he has planned his every move with the help of a beautiful woman on the outside. Now, while a corporate empire hands in the balance, while a grieving family waits, and while lawyers are plunged into a battle for their careers, the truth about Juror #2 is about to explode, in a cross fire of greed and corruption--and with justice fighting for its life...

ANNOTATION

Ever wonder what happens in the jury room, where lawyers aren't heard and the judge is not welcome? Who controls a jury when the door is locked and the deliberations begin? In John Grisham's newest novel, readers will find out the answers to these questions. For, every jury has a leader--and the verdict belongs to that person.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark tobacco trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake begins routinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and at least one juror is convinced he's being watched. Soon they have to be sequestered. Then a tip from an anonymous young woman suggests she is able to predict the jurors' increasingly odd behavior. Is the jury somehow being manipulated, or even controlled? If so, by whom? And, more important, why?

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Grisham is either remarkably prescient or just plain lucky; because with public concerns about the tobacco companies heating up, and two major nonfiction books currently garnering a lot of attention, he has come up with a tobacco-suit novel that lights up the courtroom. In a Mississippi Gulf Coast town, the widow of a lifelong smoker who died prematurely of lung cancer is suing Big Tobacco. Enter Rankin Fitch, a dark genius of jury fixing, who has won many such trials for the tobacco companies and who foresees no special problems here. Enter also a mysterious juror, Nicholas Easter, whom Fitch's army of jury investigators and manipulators can't quite seem to track-and his equally mysterious girlfriend Marlee, who soon shows Fitch she knows even more about what's happening in the jury room than he does. The details of jury selection are fascinating and the armies of lawyerly hangers-on and overpaid consultants that surround such potentially profitable (to either side) cases are horribly convincing. The cat-and-mouse game played between Nicholas, Marlee and Fitch over the direction of the jury quickly becomes hair-raising as the stakes inch ever higher. As usual with Grisham, the writing is no more than workmanlike, the characterizations are alternatively thin and too broad, but all is redeemed by his patented combination of expertise and narrative drive. What makes The Runaway Jury his most rewarding novel to date is that it is fully enlisted in an issue of substance, in which arguments of genuine pith are hammered out and resolved in a manner that is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying. It's a thriller for people who think, and Jesse Helms won't like it one bit. First printing of 2.8 million; major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection. (May) ~ Mystery

Library Journal

Grisham is back, and not surprisingly he's addressing one of the hottest topics of our time: the jury system. The plot is under wraps, but the catalog copy observes ominously: "Every jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him."

AudioFile - Paul B. Janeczko