The latest of John Grisham picks out the corruption in the highest levels of the judiciary, the Supreme Court judges. In a detailed description of election of a US State supreme court judge, the author has pointed out how the system, which is supposed to dispose justice, can be manipulated and maneuvered to elect judges who will deliver the very results that a defendant may want.

When Krane Chemical Corporation had to shut down its chemical plant in Bowmore, Mississippi, because of its toxic dump polluting the city’s drinking waters, people who had consumed the drinking water from the city services had to bear with the terrible effects of the carcinogenic contamination. And then the local court returned a verdict of punitive damages worth thirty eight million dollars for a lady who had lost her children and husband to cancer caused by the contaminated drinking water. Unperturbed, Krane Chemical decided to appeal to Mississippi Supreme Court, and proceeded to find a supreme court candidate who will rule in their behalf.

Grisham is one of the most popular writers of legal thrillers in the contemporary literary circle, and yet this is the second time he has decided to forgo the thrills for the sake of details that will enthral the reader perhaps more than the thrills. Earlier his experimentation with his first non-fiction writing, The Innocent Man, has also replaced legal thrills with shocking details of the travails of an innocent convict and the loopholes of the US judiciary. With The Appeal, Grisham touches again the similar territory, from a fictional standpoint. To think that it is possible to buy yourself a Supreme Court justice is a shocking thought, one that makes a mockery of any judicial system. And yet it must be happening at every corner of the world. In this day of consumerism, justice is no longer a beacon of hope. Often it’s a word that is found in dictionary, as the author has pointed out. We, the common people, have probably no place to go.