The Appeal, by John Grisham                                                                                                  **

I have to admit that I, like a lot of Americans, really like John Grisham and have read all of his books.  I think I like the movies even better as they are usually done well and have great casts (that whole The Firm thing aside).  Seriously, Julia Roberts was Darby Shaw.  Matt Damon was Rudy Baylor.  And Ashley Judd just looked really great as what's-his-name's wife in A Time To Kill.  I especially like his recent foray into non-fiction, An Innocent Man.
That being said, The Appeal was a huge disappointment.  It's as if Grisham said, "OK, I haven't written a legal thriller in a couple of years and my bank account is dropping below 75 gazillion dollars," and then just cranked out 300 pages of legalese light and Mississippi small town name dropping.  No twists, no turns, no character development.  There isn't enough story here for a Movie-of-the-week, much less a feature film.
So there you have it.  Me giving John Grisham a bad review.  I'm sure he'll shed a tear as he jumps into his swimming pool full of money.  And I''ll probably run out and buy his next book the day after it is released.  Had I waited and read a review such as this one, I probably would have made it a week.