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Grisham continues to impress with his daring, venturing out of legal thrillers entirely for A Painted House and Skipping Christmas (the re-release of which this past fall was itself a bold move) and, within the genre, working major variations. Here's his most unusual legal thriller yet--a story whose hero and villain are the same, a young man with the tragic flaw of greed; a story whose suspense arises not from physical threat but moral turmoil, and one that launches a devastating assault on a group of the author's colleagues within the law. Mass tort lawyers are Grisham's target, the men (they're all men here, at least) who win billion-dollar class-action settlements from corporations selling bad products, then rake fantastic fees off the top, with far smaller payouts going to the people harmed by the products. Clay Carter is a burning-out lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender (OPD) in Washington, D.C., when he catches the case of a teen who, for no apparent reason, has gunned down an acquaintance. Clay is approached by a mysterious stranger, the enigmatic Max Pace, who says he represents a megacorporation whose bad drug caused the teen--and others--to kill. The corporation will pay Clay $10 million to settle with all the murder victims at $5 million per, if all is accomplished on the hush-hush; that way, the corporation avoids trial and possibly much higher jury awards. After briefly examining his conscience, Clay bites. He quits the OPD, sets up his own firm and settles the cases. In reward, Pace gives him a present--a mass tort case based on stolen evidence but worth tens of millions in fees. Clay lunges again, eventually winning over a hundred million in fees. He is crowned by the press the new King of Torts, with enough money to hobnob with the other, venal-hearted tort royalty, to buy a Porsche, a Georgetown townhouse and a private jet, but not enough to forget his heartache over the woman he loves, who dumped him as a loser right before his career took off. Clay's financial/legal hubris knows few bounds, and soon he's overextended, his future hanging on the results of one product liability trial. The tension is considerable throughout, and readers will like the gentle ending, but Grisham's aim here clearly is to educate as he entertains. He can be didactic (" `Nobody earns ten million dollars in six months, Clay,' " a friend warns. " `You might win it, steal it, or have it drop out of the sky, but nobody earns money like that. It's ridiculous and obscene' "), but readers will applaud Grisham's fierce moral stance (while perhaps wondering what sort of advance he got for this book) as they cling to his words every step along the way of this powerful and gripping morality tale. 内容简介
The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is just another of the many senseless murders that hit D.C. every week.
As he digs into the background of his client, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible to believe. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of a complex case against one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, looking at the kind of enormous settlement that would totally change his life—that would make him, almost overnight, the legal profession's newest king of torts... 作者简介
John Grisham is the author of a collection of stories, a work of nonfiction, three sports novels, four kids' books, and many legal thrillers. His work has been translated into forty-two languages. He lives near Charlottesville, Virginia.
约翰·格里森姆(John Grisham;1955年—),美国知名畅销小说作家,他的一系列创作富含法庭法律内容的畅 销犯罪小说为他赢得了巨大的声誉和财富。20世纪90年代伊始直到今天,约翰·格里森姆都是美国以及世界上很多地方最受欢迎的畅销小说作家。他的作品绝大多数是情节紧张、结局出人意料,但又不失深度的法律悬念小说,娓娓道来美国法律、政治世界的多种层面、各色人物。 精彩书评
"Rousing...Another pedal-to-the-metal crowd-pleaser."
——People
"Offers everything one expects from Grisham...delivers with a vengeance."
——The Seattle Times
"Satisfying...a lot of fun...When you finish it, you're ready to dash on to the next Grisham."
——Entertainment Weekly
"A thrill ride of twists and turns."
——The Philadelphia Inquirer 精彩书摘
THE SHOTS THAT FIRED the bullets that entered Pumpkin's head were heard by no less than eight people. Three instinctively closed their windows, checked their door locks, and withdrew to the safety, or at least the seclusion, of their small apartments. Two others, each with experience in such matters, ran from the vicinity as fast if not faster than the gunman himself. Another, the neighborhood recycling fanatic, was digging through some garbage in search of aluminum cans when he heard the sharp sounds of the daily skirmish, very nearby. He jumped behind a pile of cardboard boxes until the shelling stopped, then eased into the alley where he saw what was left of Pumpkin.
And two saw almost everything. They were sitting on plastic milk crates, at the corner of Georgia and Lamont in front of a liquor store, partially hidden by a parked car so that the gunman, who glanced around briefly before following Pumpkin into the alley, didn't see them. Both would tell the police that they saw the boy with the gun reach into his pocket and pull it out; they saw the gun for sure, a small black pistol. A second later they heard the shots, though they did not actually see Pumpkin take them in the head. Another second, and the boy with the gun darted from the alley and, for some reason, ran straight in their direction. He ran bent at the waist, like a scared dog, guilty as hell. He wore red-and-yellow basketball shoes that seemed five sizes too big and slapped the pavement as he made his getaway.
When he ran by them he was still holding the gun, probably a .38, and he flinched just for a instant when he saw them and realized they had seen too much. For one terrifying second, he seemed to raise the gun as if to eliminate the witnesses, both of whom managed to flip backward from their plastic milk crates and scramble off in a mad flurry of arms and legs. Then he was gone.
One of them opened the door to the liquor store and yelled for someone to call the police, there had been a shooting.
Thirty minutes later, the police received a call that a young man matching the description of the one who had wasted Pumpkin had been seen twice on Ninth Street carrying a gun in open view and acting stranger than most of the people on Ninth. He had tried to lure at least one person into an abandoned lot, but the intended victim had escaped and reported the incident.
The police found their man an hour later. His name was Tequila Watson, black male, age twenty, with the usual drug-related police record. No family to speak of. No address. The last place he'd been sleeping was a rehab unit on W Street. He'd managed to ditch the gun somewhere, and if he'd robbed Pumpkin then he'd also thrown away the cash or drugs or whatever the booty was. His pockets were clean, as were his eyes. The cops were certain Tequila was not under the influence of anything when he was arrested. A quick and rough interrogation took place on the street, then he was handcuffed and shoved into the rear seat of a D.C. police car.
They drove him back to Lamont Street, where they arranged an impromptu encounter with the two witnesses. Tequila was led into the alley where he'd left Pumpkin. "Ever been here before?" a cop asked.
Tequila said nothing, just gawked at the puddle of fresh blood on the dirty concrete. The two witnesses were eased into the alley, then led quietly to a spot near Tequila.
"That's him," both said at the same time.
"He's wearing the same clothes, same basketball shoes, everything but the gun."
"That's him."
"No doubt about it."
Tequila was shoved into the car once again and taken to jail. He was booked for murder and locked away with no immediate chance of bail. Whether through experience or just fear, Tequila never said a word to the cops as they pried and cajoled and even threatened. Nothing incriminating, nothing helpful. No indication of why he would murder Pumpkin. No clue as to their history, if one existed at all. A veteran detective made a brief note in the file that the killing appeared a bit more random than was customary.
No phone call was requested. No mention of a lawyer or a bail bondsman. Tequila seemed dazed but content to sit in a crowded cell and stare at the floor.
PUMPKIN HAD NO TRACEABLE father but his mother worked as a security guard in the basement of a large office building on New York Avenue. It took three hours for the police to determine her son's real name--Ram-n Pumphrey--to locate his address, and to find a neighbor willing to tell them if he had a mother.
Adelfa Pumphrey was sitting behind a desk just inside the basement entrance, supposedly watching a bank of monitors. She was a large thick woman in a tight khaki uniform, a gun on her waist, a look of complete disinterest on her face. The cops who approached her had done so a hundred times. They broke the news, then found her supervisor.
In a city where young people killed each other every day, the slaughter had thickened skins and hardened hearts, and every mother knew many others who'd lost their children. Each loss brought death a step closer, and every mother knew that any day could be the last. The mothers had watched the others survive the horror. As Adelfa Pumphrey sat at her desk with her face in her hands, she thought of her son and his lifeless body lying somewhere in the city at that moment, being inspected by strangers.
She swore revenge on whoever killed him.
She cursed his father for abandoning the child.
She cried for her baby.
And she knew she would survive. Somehow, she would survive.
ADELFA WENT TO COURT to watch the arraignment. The police told her the punk who'd killed her son was scheduled to make his first appearance, a quick and routine matter in which he would plead not guilty and ask for a lawyer. She was in the back row with her brother on one side and a neighbor on the other, her eyes leaking tears into a damp handkerchief. She wanted to see the boy. She also wanted to ask him why, but she knew she would never get the chance.
They herded the criminals through like cattle at an auction. All were black, all wore orange coveralls and handcuffs, all were young. Such waste.
In addition to his handcuffs, Tequila was adorned with wrist and ankle chains since his crime was especially violent, though he looked fairly harmless when he was shuffled into the courtroom with the next wave of offenders. He glanced around quickly at the crowd to see if he recognized anyone, to see if just maybe someone was out there for him. He was seated in a row of chairs, and for good measure one of the armed bailiffs leaned down and said, "That boy you killed. That's his mother back there in the blue dress."
With his head low, Tequila slowly turned and looked directly into the wet and puffy eyes of Pumpkin's mother, but only for a second. Adelfa stared at the skinny boy in the oversized coveralls and wondered where his mother was and how she'd raised him and if he had a father, and, most important, how and why his path had crossed that of her boy's. The two were about the same age as the rest of them, late teens or early twenties. The cops had told her that it appeared, at least initially, that drugs were not involved in the killing. But she knew better. Drugs were involved in every layer of street life. Adelfa knew it all too well. Pumpkin had used pot and crack and he'd been arrested once, for simple possession, but he had never been violent. The cops were saying it looked like a random killing. All street killings were random, her brother had said, but they all had a reason.
On one side of the courtroom was a table around which the authorities gathered. The cops whispered to the prosecutors, who flipped through files and reports and tried valiantly to keep the paperwork ahead of the criminals. On the other side was a table where the defense lawyers came and went as the assembly line sputtered along. Drug charges were rattled off by the Judge, an armed robbery, some vague sexual attack, more drugs, lots of parole violations. When their names were called, the defendants were led forward to the bench, where they stood in silence. Paperwork was shuffled, then they were hauled off again, back to jail.
"Tequila Watson," a bailiff announced.
He was helped to his feet by another bailiff. He stutter-stepped forward, chains rattling.
"Mr. Watson, you are charged with murder," the Judge announced loudly. "How old are you?"
"Twenty," Tequila said, looking down.
The murder charge had echoed through the courtroom and brought a temporary stillness. The other criminals in orange looked on with admiration. The lawyers and cops were curious.
"Can you afford a lawyer?"
"No."
"Didn't think so," the Judge mumbled and glanced at the defense table. The fertile fields of the D.C. Superior Court Criminal Division, Felony Branch, were worked on a daily basis by the Office of the Public Defender, the safety net for all indigent defendants. Seventy percent of the docket was handled by court-appointed counsel, and at any time there were usually half a dozen PDs milling around in cheap suits and battered loafers with files sticking out of their briefcases. At that precise moment, however, only one PD was present, the Honorable Clay Carter II, who had stopped by to check on two much lesser felonies, and now found himself all alone and wanting to bolt from the courtroom. He glanced to his right and to his left and realized that His Honor was looking at him. Where had all the other PDs gone?
A week earlier, Mr. Carter had finished a murder case, one that had lasted for almost three years and had finally been closed with his client being sent away to a prison from which he would never leave, at least not officially. Clay Carter was quite happy his client was now locked up, and he was relieved that he, at that moment, had no murder files on his desk.
That, evidently, was abou...
尘封的遗嘱:林德家三代人的秘密与救赎 作者:伊莱亚斯·凡德堡 译者:林若溪 出版社:蓝鲸文化 装帧:精装 页数:680 出版日期:2024年10月 --- 内容简介: 在北美大陆的腹地,坐落着“静水湾”——一片被低语的沼泽和古老的橡树环绕的私人领地。这里曾是美国最负盛名的制药王朝之一,林德家族的权力与财富的中心。然而,随着家族缔造者、铁腕族长阿德里安·林德的突然离世,这片宁静之地开始被一种难以言喻的阴影所笼罩。 《尘封的遗嘱》并非一部关于商业竞争或法律博弈的教科书,而是一部深入骨髓的家族史诗,一幅描绘了荣耀、背叛、以及人性深处对救赎的渴望的宏大画卷。故事始于阿德里安的葬礼,一个本该是哀悼与和解的场合,却迅速演变成一场家族内部权力斗争的导火索。 阿德里安留下的遗嘱,如同埋在家族地基下的一枚定时炸弹。它并非简单地分配资产,而是设置了一系列近乎残酷的条件,要求他的三个性格迥异的子女——冷酷的继承人塞拉斯、追求艺术的女儿薇拉,以及被家族排斥的私生子伊莱亚斯——必须在一年内共同管理家族信托,完成一项看似不可能的“遗愿”:修复家族历史上一次被刻意掩盖的重大环境灾难。 第一部分:静水湾的腐朽 故事的开篇,读者被带入林德家族庄园的内部,那里的空气仿佛凝固了数十年的谎言。塞拉斯,长子,一个在华尔街磨砺出钢铁意志的金融家,坚信家族的“荣耀”必须以最现实的方式延续。他看待一切都是成本与收益的计算,对父亲的遗嘱深感不屑,认为这是垂死之人的最后一次控制欲的体现。他渴望迅速出售那些拖累利润的“旧资产”,包括那片位于静水湾核心的、被环保组织长期关注的湿地。 与此形成鲜明对比的是薇拉。她是一位才华横溢但长期被家族财富阴影压抑的雕塑家。她对家族的“罪孽”抱有强烈的道德愧疚,她希望利用自己的艺术敏感性去解读父亲留下的那些晦涩难懂的笔记,试图在艺术的抽象中找到家族病灶的具象化。她视家族的财富为一种诅咒,但又无法彻底割舍那份与生俱来的责任感。 伊莱亚斯,那个“意外的继承人”,他的存在本身就是对林德家族完美假象的嘲讽。他自幼被送往欧洲接受教育,远离家族的争斗,过着一种波西米亚式的自由生活。当他被突然召回时,他带着对这个家族根深蒂固的疏离感和一种近乎天真的观察者视角。他发现,父亲留下的线索——那些泛黄的照片、加密的信件,以及一个被锁住的地下室——似乎指向的不是财产分配,而是一场长达半个世纪的、关于“道德债务”的清算。 第二部分:迷雾中的线索 随着三个兄弟姐妹被迫合作,静水湾的历史真相开始以碎片化的形式浮现。他们发现,家族的崛起并非完全建立在专利和商业智慧之上,而是源于一场关于早期化学制剂倾倒的秘密协议。这场灾难,代号“夜莺行动”,不仅污染了周边的水源和土壤,更重要的是,它导致了一个社区的衰落,并间接造成了多起无法解释的健康问题。 塞拉斯试图用金钱解决问题,他准备了一份慷慨的赔偿方案,只求尽快“摆平”历史。然而,遗嘱中明确指出,任何试图用现金替代“实际修复”的行为,都将导致信托资金被冻结,并归入一个不知名的慈善基金会。 薇拉则专注于修复一件被遗弃在庄园深处的、由她祖母创作的巨大壁画。在修复过程中,她发现了隐藏在颜料层下的秘密草图,这些草图记录了家族成员在危机时刻的真实反应,揭示了家族内部关于是否要“掩盖”真相的激烈争论。 而伊莱亚斯,凭借他局外人的身份,成功地与当地社区的几位年迈的原住民建立了联系。他们口中的传说和记忆,拼凑出了“夜莺行动”的完整面貌——它不仅是环境破坏,更是一场关于个人良知与集体沉默的道德审判。 第三部分:抉择与救赎 随着时间的推移,家族成员间的隔阂被共同面对的真相逐渐消融。塞拉斯必须学习放下对纯粹利润的执念,理解“价值”并非总是能用货币衡量;薇拉则必须接受,艺术的力量在于行动,而不仅仅是表达;伊莱亚斯则开始意识到,血缘的联系,即使是带着伤痕的,也具有一种不可抗拒的牵引力。 遗嘱的最后期限临近,他们面临着真正的抉择:是遵从阿德里安设计的严酷路径,彻底修复生态并公开道歉,冒着家族声誉尽毁、资产大幅缩水的风险;还是在最后的关头,联手推翻那份遗嘱,保住林德家族的“面子”,继续活在谎言之中? 《尘封的遗嘱》是一部关于继承的重量、选择的代价,以及真正的家族遗产——究竟是金钱的堆砌,还是道德的重建——的深刻探讨。它剥开了商业巨头的华丽外壳,展现了人性在巨大压力下的挣扎与最终的觉醒。当静水湾的雾气散去,真相的光芒照亮的,不仅是家族的罪孽,也是他们重新开始的可能。 --- (本书语言细腻,情节张力十足,尤其擅长描绘环境细节与人物内心世界的交织,被评论家誉为“当代家族小说中的又一力作”。)