Judge dread

"The jury was ready." Just four words into his 21st book and the master of courtroom drama has already captivated the reader. The Appeal has topped the New York Times bestseller list since its release and US literary critics are already hailing it as an "era-defining classic". But John Grisham's latest bestseller is not just a legal thriller. It spills over into the murky world of politics and delivers a blow-by-blow tutorial on how to rig an election.

Coming as it does in the midst of the US primaries, The Appeal is a timely tale with a stark warning about the role of big business in the political arena.

Money talks loud and clear to the politicians and they listen intently as they weigh the (in)vested interests of giant corporations against those of the common mortal, all in the name of securing economic prosperity for everyone.

In this democracy, some votes are more equal than others, especially when they are backed by multi-figure sums. Mr Grisham is particularly irked by the way elections for judges of US state supreme courts are run. "As long as private money is allowed in judicial elections," writes Mr Grisham in his author's note, "we will see competing interests fight for seats on the bench."

The book starts innocently enough as a classic David and Goliath story. Round one goes to the underdog when a Mississippi jury awards a young widow a surprise multi-million dollar compensation and holds a chemical company responsible for contaminating the groundwater which killed her husband and son. The toxic waste dumped by Krane Chemical Corporation in the fictitious town of Bowmore was enough to cause the worst cancer cluster in history, 15 times the national average.

The plaintiff's legal team are husband and wife Wes and Mary Grace Payton who have staked their careers and, in the process, went bankrupt to fight this battle. On the other hand, Krane Chemical Corporation is a giant with an ego to match and is not about to concede defeat so easily. Its billionaire boss Carl Trudeau is adamant he will not bow to the will of "those ignorant people" and swears on his mother's grave that "not one dime of our hard-earned profits will ever get into the hands of those trailer park peasants".

Krane appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court where a panel of nine elected judges would ultimately decide the case. And this is where things start to get dirty.

Carl Trudeau feels blind justice needs some guidance to reach the right verdict. A sympathetic judge could tip the balance. With judicial elections round the corner, the solution couldn't be simpler: target one judge and replace her with a "friendly" one, a puppet who will be groomed to "limit liability in civil litigation."

All that is required is a lot of money, a slick, all-guns-blazing campaign, and more money. After all, as Carl Trudeau realises, "politics [...] is cheaper than a verdict".

The campaign, in fact, dominates the central part of the book and reveals the extent to which political strategists use all the tricks in the proverbial book to manipulate voters. The term corruption is never used in the book because what we witness is far more elegant and complex. Nevertheless, the means is just as foul and it still does not justify the end. This may be a work of fiction but Mr Grisham makes it clear in his author's note that, "there is a lot of truth in this story".

The predictable and one-dimensional characters are slaves to the plot and Mr Grisham's methodical writing style leaves little room for any emotions to mature and develop.

But that is just the point Mr Grisham is trying to make, one that rails him most. In the world of big business and big-time politics there is no space for melodrama; it is survival of the fittest that counts, at whatever the cost.

• Ms Bishop lives in Switzerland with her husband, baby son, too many books and not enough bookshelves.

• A review copy of this title was supplied by Agenda Bookshop.