The Appeal - John Grisham

John Grisham and I have a love hate relationship. He brought me to my favorite genera...mystery/thriller. He avoids graphic descriptions of sex. His main characters are exceptionally likable. They are deeply flawed but at the core are good and when push comes to shove they make the right choice. That being said, his endings are always rubbish as if he ran out of steam and just went for the safe ending and his last few books just haven't done it for me. Surprisingly this latest was one of my favorites. It follows a supreme court campaign, bought by big business trying to have an torte legal case overthrown. There was enough here that was believable that I just couldn't help but think, are we honestly allowing people to vote for supreme court judges, people who can and often are swayed by money, money that the supreme court has voted can still be poured into campaigns. It seems like it would be to easy to manipulate, but it turns out it is fairly common, 22 states: Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin. Not the best book I've ever read but probably worth it for the crazy conspiracy theories it got going.