Rogue Lawyer follows the sometimes dangerous life of lawyer Sebastian Rudd, who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and defend suspects that have had their names thrown under the bus; often with crimes they didn’t commit. Because of Rudd’s willingness to defend clients, he becomes a target. Rogue Lawyer is a telling of some of Rudd’s adventures as a self-righteous legal practitioner and how they catch up to him.
The story begins with Sebastian Rudd defending a client named Gardy, who is being accused of the murders of two young girls. As the only suspect for the crime, Gardy was arrested and since then the media has been crucifying him, treating him like the scum of the earth. Through Rudd’s experience he is able to deduce that Gardy is innocent. His unapologetic nature of defending Gardy sees Rudd enduring heat from both his peers and the general public. Throughout this introductory case, we get to enjoy Rudd’s unconventional methods of criminal defence. We gradually get a look into Rudd’s background, including his rocky relationship with his ex-wife who is also the mother of his son.
Grisham does an excellent drop of dropping in titbits about Sebastian’s Rudd on a need to know basis, as opposed to giving us his life story up front and potentially making him less interesting.
After the Gardy case commences, the story runs us through some of Rudd’s other clients and it begins to feel like the book will become just an assortment of unconnected short stories staring Sebastian Rudd. There were moments when I wondered if any of these cases will have relevance later on. Thankfully, most of the characters we encounter through Sebastian’s other cases play a part in the latter parts of the story; at which point Rogue Lawyer becomes a compelling page-turner.
As always, John Grisham is a master at suspense and his writing does a great job catching the attention of the reader. Grisham isn’t always descriptive in his scenes as they’re largely dialogue driven, but something about his writing allows you to clearly visualise the events playing out as if it were a TV series.
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Rogue Lawyer is not John Grisham’s best work, but it was exactly what I needed at the time of reading. It provided an easy reading experience with enough thrills and interesting conundrums to hold my attention. Perhaps Rogue Lawyer shouldn’t be your first choice of John Grisham book, but if you’re a seasoned reader looking for something easy and fulfilling to digest, then this book does the job.
