Gray Mountain

Book Review: GRAY MOUNTAIN by John Grisham; Action novel, 2014; Dell Publishing

The year is 2008, two weeks after Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Samantha Kofer, 29-year-old third-year associate in a large Manhattan law firm finds herself suddenly on unpaid leave, being escorted out the company door with a list of ten volunteer organizations that might be accepting interns. Hundreds of young lawyers are in similar straits, and most openings are already filled. The last on her list, Mountain Legal Aid Clinic, in Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, has other applicants, but is willing to interview her.

She is stopped on the outskirts of Brady “for speeding”. Suspicious of her New York ID and her rental car's Vermont plates, the cop arrests her, allowing no argument. As she sits alone in the county jail waiting area, a young man enters. “Miss Kofer? My name is Donovan Gray and I'm your attorney. I've just gotten all your charges dismissed.” He hands her a business card which looks legitimate. He turns out to be the nephew of Mattie Wyatt, the director of Mountain Legal Aid, and explains that his aunt is in court, but wants to see Samantha at five.

He drives her back to her car, then guides her to the Aid Clinic.

“So, do I owe you a fee?”

“Sure. A cup of coffee at the cafe down the street. You have time to kill before Mattie is free.” This is her introduction to small town law practice in the Appalachian coal country. Much different from the big firm in New York.

Mattie's clients are mostly unemployed coal miners, or chronically ill, or victims of con men, unable to afford a lawyer. Nephew Donovan has his own separate practice, mostly suing coal companies for victimizing their employees, or for environmental pollution. Mattie's orientation advice is practical: “Just take notes, frown a lot, and try and look intelligent.”

The first client's husband had been arrested in the next county, fined for a minor infraction, had no money and was jailed. His debt was turned over to a collection agency, who added multiple “service charges” that he also couldn't pay. Debtors' prison has been outlawed in USA for 200 years, but the collection agency counted on their victim's inability to afford a lawyer. Mattie had dealt with them before, and rattled off a dozen ways she would deal with them.

Another client's husband beats her severely when he gets drunk, and is now enraged that she called the police. She is terrified of him, wants a divorce, and protection.

An old lady wants her will changed. Her only asset is eighty acres of land that a coal mine wants. She fears that her five children will sell the property as soon as she dies, and the coal mine will strip the land to get the coal beneath it. She wants to cut her children out of her will and donate the land to a non-profit organization.

A divorced woman and her two kids are homeless after a collection agency garnisheed her wages, her employer fired her, and her landlord evicted her. She and the kids have been living in her small car for two weeks; she is down to her last two dollars and needs gas for the car and food for the kids.

But the big case of the year is one of Samantha's new clients. Buddy Ryzer has had 'black lung disease' – a common disability in coal miners – for ten years, but Lonerock Mining Co.. refuses to pay compensation. Their lawyers routinely appeal the government's order, and have goons to punish anyone who objects. “We gotta have a lawyer, but nobody will take our case.” Buddy had no choice but to go on working, but he can barely breathe. He and his wife brought two shopping bags of papers – who's gonna look through all those, right? Samantha does, and finds incriminating evidence that the company has known all along that Buddy is disabled and they chose to ignore it.

By the the time the dust settles, Donovan has died under suspicious circumstances; his younger brother, Jeff Gray – not a lawyer, but a bulldog who won't let go – vows to avenge him. The FBI has seized the Clinic's computers, Samantha's life is endangered, and she has to decide her next move.

Author John Gresham is justly famous for his legal action novels. I have read several and enjoy his style, except that he often ends them with the hero or heroine safe from danger and with $10,000,000 stashed away somewhere. Not this time. But the reader will identify with the parade of down-in-their-luck clients and the way he handles them and their toxic surroundings in this story. Well worth reading.