The King Of Tortes

The King Of Torts is a book written by John Grisham that I picked up to read last year. I don't have a lot of opportunity to read for pleasure these days. I always liked John Grisham so I thought I would check out this book.
Clay Carter is the main character in The King Of Tortes. He is a young public defender, the lawyer son of a lawyer. His dad Clay, Sr. had been a well known trial attorney in Washington, D.C. who left the country for South America after a self created scandal. Now Dad was living the life of a beach captaining a small boat.
Clay has higher aspirations, he want the American Dream and to maybe to live it with Rebecca, his girlfriend. Unfortunately, her high-powered, new money family do not approve of Clay. She breaks it off.
Clay is appointed to defend Tequila Watson on a murder charge and soon after is visted by the mysterious Max Pace. Turns out Tequila Watson was under the influence of an experimental drug when he committed his crime and a huge pharmaceutical company is behind it all. And there may be others.
The drug company has sent Max Pace to solicit Clay to pay off the families of the victims of these murders and to keep things quiet. Then Max shows back up to give Clay some insider information on another drug and soon Clay is a huge big-time torte lawyer. However, you cannot fly with the eagle forever and Clay's increasing greed eventually brings down his new found success.
You might think that this subject matter could be boring for a book since it deals with things that very real in our society. However, this is not the case. The story was paced very well and proved extremely suspenseful. At the same time that you are chiding Clay for his increasing greed, you are still wanting him to get the girl and live happily ever after. You know that somewhere underneath he is just like you.