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.

Was I disappointed by The Street Lawyer? Not at all; the opening chapter does a fantastic job of hooking the reader, creating a tense hostage situation at a law firm known as Drake & Sweeney. A group of lawyers are held hostage by a homeless man known as “Mister”. The hostage situation ends in a messy fashion, but our protagonist Michael Brock gets out of the situation intact. The ordeal causes Michael Brock to rethink his stance on the homeless, and thus he begins to dig into the history of Mister. This leads Michael through a journey of discovery, by which he finds out that his own law firm assisted in the eviction of Mister and several other homeless.

I won’t get into what happens from then on, but the plot thickens quite nicely. What I appreciate the most about a John Grisham novel is his ability to write characters that feel so organic. You could picture a Michael Brock living somewhere in your city, because Grisham writes in his flaws and struggles so convincingly. However, the side effect to this style of writing is that there are often dull moments where Michael’s everyday life is told so accurately that you almost feel like some of it serves the story no purpose. For me, these slow moments weren’t too much of a biggie, but if you’re reading at night time on a work night it’s easy to nod off while reading about Michael Brock picking up his belongings from his old apartment.

If you read The Street Lawyer then it’s assumed that you’ll have enough understanding of John Grisham’s work to not get put off by the everyday dealings of an anti-trust lawyer going through a mid-life crisis. Therefore your expectations won’t get the better of you and you’ll be able to enjoy reading through The Street Lawyer gracefully. The Street Lawyer makes a great plane or train novel, and it should only take you a week to get through it depending on your reading pace.