The Litigators

October 24, 2011
Grisham's entertaining modern-day legal thriller offers a bitingly farcical look at lawyers at the bottom of the food chain. David Zinc, an associate at a Chicago mega-firm who's sick of the sweatshop he's been laboring in for five years, flees the office one morning and ends up spending all day in a bar. Soon after the bartender finally kicks him out, Zinc spots an ad on a city bus for a firm of ambulance-chasers, Finley & Figg, and resolves to join their hapless practice. Meanwhile, Wally Figg, one of Finley & Figg's two partners, thinks he's found a goldmine after learning that a client who died recently was taking an anti-cholesterol drug called Krayoxx. Zinc, who has zero litigation experience, aids Finley & Figg, who likewise lack litigation experience, in filing suit against the huge pharmaceutical company that produces Krayoxx. Grisham (The Confession) makes Zinc's personal transformation more convincing than his professional one. Some readers may feel the fairy tale ending clashes with the dark humor of the opening.

January 30, 2012
When burnt-out lawyer David Zinc quits his job at a major corporate firm, a stress-induced nervous breakdown, heavy drinking, and the prospect of unemployment lead him to the doors of the seedy law firm of Finley & Figg and into the middle of a huge class action lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company that may be more than the partners at Finley & Figg can handle. Dennis Boutsikaris’s narration is competent; he keeps the plot chugging along at an appropriate pace and shines in his portrayal of Zinc. He also effectively captures the over-the-top, ambulance-chasing banter of Zinc’s new colleagues at the shady Finley & Figg. Yet when characters outside of Zinc’s immediate orbit appear—particularly females and characters from varying ethnic backgrounds—the voices Boutsikaris creates begin to sound similar, amounting to some noticeable lost opportunities in a still enjoyable and highly entertaining audio. A Doubleday hardcover.