The Rooster Bar: The New York Times Number One Bestseller

Ah, Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Back to school, the weather starts to nip, boots and coats are dug out of the closet, the leaves change colour and…it is time for a new John Grisham release. I always equate this time of year with the time to get a new one of his book. I now always have them on pre-order so I get them the day they come out, because I absolutely love his books. Always an edge-of-your-seat, irresistible combination of thriller and legal puzzle, his book are guaranteed to keep me glued to the pages from start to finish. I normally devour them as soon as they are out.So imagine my surprise when, whilst waiting for his new book The Reckoning to be published, I realised that I hadn’t read last year’s release, The Rooster Bar. How did that happen? I can’t imagine except that my memory is like a sieve these days (I blame my age and hormones. In fact, it is even possible that I have read it and forgotten, things have got that bad.) Anyway, happy days – I now had another unread John Grisham to enjoy on my recent holiday.I am always fascinated as to where authors get their ideas for novels from and there is an interesting note at the back of this book where Grisham reveals that the idea for this novel came from an article he read about the level of debt students in the US were taking on in order to put themselves through law school. Quite how he goes from what sounds like quite a dull article, particularly to non-lawyers, to a nail-biting thriller is the nature of his genius, because somehow he manages to spin it in to one of his classic plots that kept me up late desperate to get to the end.The plot of this book is quite outrageous and I think you need to suspend your disbelief to buy in to it, but that is true of most thrillers, which are by their nature outlandish and pushing the boundaries of what is probable. These books are pure escapism, sometimes keeping only a slight grasp on reality and I am sure the court system in the USA would be outraged to think this could possibly happen (although I am now waiting for someone to tell me that it has been done.) Anyway, likelihood aside, the plot is original and gripping and an interesting spin on the ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ roles as the protagonists are actually breaking the law but we still end up rooting for them, despite the fact that they are jeopardising the futures of their clients, because they themselves are victims in some respects. Should they get away scot-free? Is what happens to them justice? I don’t want to give anything away by revealing my thoughts but I think you will find more to ponder in these books than people often give Grisham credit for.When I have revealed to people in the past what a massive fan I am of John Grisham’s books, I have met with some literary snobbery, most particularly from people who have never read any of his books. Well, firstly, I would query whether you can form a valid opinion of an author without reading a word they have written. And, secondly, you don’t sell as many books as John Grisham has without being able to write. He is the master of creating a taut, exciting and interesting thriller and this one is no exception. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I always do, and can’t wait to read his new book.

Without a doubt the worst Grisham book I've ever read... struggled, but persevered to complete it. That he has contractually obliged (so I understand) to write one every year clearly showed...

This was one of the three John Grishams novels I recently read back-to-back. Unfortunately this one was probably one of the poorer novels - The Confession being the better one. The Rooster Bar was a bit cliched in parts and not as tense as some of the other novels by Grisham. The characters themselves were not delved into in any great detail and I found little empathy with the leads. Overall an okay-ish read.*** Please could you click Yes if my review has helped you in any way ***

I know that a novel from the John Grisham factory can be expected to be formulaic, but this story is just a replay of previous novels ie The Firm and The Rainmaker. This is the worst novel I've ever read, it's a simplistic tick box exercise. Based around the usual rookie lawyer battles impossibly crooked law firm/client (delete as applicable) story, the main protagonist nearly fights the good lawyer fight nearly doesn't make it through alive, then surprise surprise turns out to be more confident, intelligent and moral than every other character in the story put together. Escapes then lives a happy life safe in the knowledge the world is a better place because of him. Couple of female characters thrown in here for good measure with a token African Muslim who is just there to facilitate the story. If this had been a first novel by a new author it would have got nowhere.

John Grisham is the only author I read, I always preorder from Amazon and his books never disappoint, just a amazing writer, I never guess the killer or the ending because there is always a real twist at the end