The Runaway Jury by John Grisham

Completed the book yesterday…finally!!!! Was on the way to work and seeing that the journey to work takes about 20 mins, I might as well read. So anyways, here’s the gist of what the story is all about.

Basically, a widow whose husband has died of lung cancer and she’s filing a lawsuit against a tobacco company for supposedly causing his untimely death and this Rohr guy who represents the tobacco company is doing whatever he can to win the case even if it means going as far as bribing or plotting a conspiracy against the members of the jury to get their vote in the favour of the tobacco company. Then comes a certain Nicholas Easter who skillfully worm his way into becoming one of the member of the jury. In the beginning of the story, one would assume that he’s just a charming ex-law student who for some reason is trying to gain the confidence and trust of his fellow jury members. Little did they know, he’s working with his girlfriend, Millie-something holding the juries’ votes “hostage”. Rohr was to give him this sum of money given a period of time or else Easter will sway the juries’ votes to the opposing side. Desperate to win the case, Rohr paid some million dollars to Millie and unbeknownst to him, both of her parents had died from lung cancer several years ago from smoking; that simply means Rohr’s been screwed, if you get what I mean.

My thoughts:
Yes, smoking is the main contributer of lung cancer but in the end it’s the consumer’s choice of whether to smoke or not and if one choses to smoke, he/she will have to live with the consequences later on. And regarding the tobacco company that promotes smoking - it’s just business and to inform teens about the consequences of smoking, it should start from school level…but I have to admit that so far, I doubt that it’s even working at all as we can all see teens these days smoking a cigar. But really, smoking is bad for your health and like the government says, say TAK NAK to smoking and you will probably live a longer life.