Favourite Fiction

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	The King of Torts - by John Grisham John Grisham's The King of Torts demonstrates that his narrative skills remain as impeccable as ever. Grisham knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to transfixing the reader. Within the high-powered milieu of the public defender's office in Washington DC, Grisham's protagonist is an ambitious young lawyer who finds himself saddled with what appears to be a nothing case: one of a wave of crack cocaine killings that are the bane of the capital. But as Clay Carter investigates, he finds that something more than a random street murder is involved here and a massive conspiracy becomes apparent. The stakes are suddenly very high indeed. If the skulduggery here (involving one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world) is a tad familiar, Grisham remains nonpareil when it comes to delivering a smoothly engineered plot. A fresh touch is Carter's desire to break free from the routine cases he has been handling: this quickly becomes a case of beware what you wish for. Another innovative touch is the refusal to tie up the narrative in the expected ways: The King of Torts has much more verisimilitude in this area than most legal thrillers. One more thing, Grisham's prose now has a sardonic, satirical quality that suggests the Tom Wolfe of Bonfire of the Vanities . -- Barry Forshaw
	The Little Friend - by Donna Tartt Weird happenings within an even weirder family combine with the "fusty, drunken perfume of Magnolia" to fill this southern Gothic novel with bizarre behavior and pervasive threats of death and revenge. Forces of evil are at work, according to Charlotte Cleve, a mother of three, who believes the mysterious hanging death of her nine-year-old son Robin resulted because she changed her traditional Mother's Day celebration from noon to six o'clock on the day he died. Twelve years after Robin's death, his fiercely independent sister Harriet, now twelve herself, investigates the circumstances of Robin's death, bent on identifying and punishing his murderer. Bearing little resemblance to Scout, the endearing heroine of To Kill a Mockingbird, single-minded Harriet recognizes no limits and is willing to do anything, including using a gun, to accomplish her goals. Confronting ex-cons who run a crystal meth lab, ditsy great-aunts who know what's "right," redneck children who lurk in the bushes, two snake-handling preachers, a mother who turns her house into a maze filled with piles of rotting, old newspapers, and a sister who sleeps seventeen hours a day ("I only get bored when I'm awake," she says), Harriet takes more comfort from her plans for revenge than from traditional southern values. Tartt's themes of death and punishment achieve some sense of universality through her use of numerous symbols and parallels, often with animals, but these are frequently sentimental. The euthanasia of a beloved pet cat; Harriet's accidental killing of a blackbird stuck in tar, snakes handled by hillbilly preachers; and the vicious dogs of the Ratliff family haunt the narrative. The old family home is called Tribulation; Harriet's heroes are Sherlock Holmes, Harry Houdini, and Captain Scott, the explorer; and she spends much of the novel looking for a pair of red gloves given to her by her black housekeeper, whom she loves but treats with casual cruelty. Filled with dense imagery and melodrama, this novel will appeal to those looking for fast escape reading. - - - Mary Whipple
	Rotten in Denmark - by Jim Pollard Frankie Dane and his sidekick, Cal Carter were hailed as the new Lennon and McCartney of 1978, but within two years Cal was dead from an overdose. Today Frankie is a star, but he is still haunted by the death of his best friend. He must face up to his past before it catches up with him. Jim Pollard's outstanding debut novel is recommended reading for anyone who's ever been in a band or wanted to be (and be honest, that's everyone).
	Tishomingo Blues - by Elmore Leonard Dennis Lenehan is a class act. A high diver, turned pro in 79, who's fetched up at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino near the Mighty Mississippi, diving from an eighty-foot-high platform into a tank with just nine feet of water. All to entertain the guests. Except that Dennis just loves his job. Too bad then that his pleasure is spoiled when one day he witnesses a killing from his position high up in the sky. Pretty soon Dennis is deep in trouble as some cool dudes from up north attempt to muscle in on the local Dixie Mafia - moonshiners, bootleggers, truck-hijackers and amphetamine manufacturers - and decide that Dennis has just what it takes to run a racket.
	Basket Case - by Carl Hiaasen Jack Tagger is a frustrated journalist. His outspoken views have relegated him to the obituary page, with his byline never again to disgrace the front page. But Jack has stumbled across a whale of a story that might just resurrect his career... James Stomarti, infamous frontman of rock band Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, has died in a diving accident and Jack harbours suspicions that the glamorous pop starlet widow may have had a vested interest in her husband's untimely death. It all smells a little too fishy. Aided and abetted by his rather sexy (if unnervingly ambitious) young editor, Emma, Jack sets out to in pursuit of the truth - and a nice juicy story. But of course nothing is ever straightforward and with murderous goons on his tail, brutal internal politics at the paper and a paranoia about death, Jack is struggling to keep his head above water. Was Jimmy Stomarti murdered? Is someone trying to kill off the Slut Puppies one by one? And what significance can a dead lizard named Colonel Tom possibly have? Basket Case is an absolute delight from first page to last and spells out a hilariously hard-won triumph for muckraking journalism. This is one book you'll kill to get your hands on.
	A Man in Full - by Tom Wolfe Atlanta conglomerate king, Charles Croker, has expansionist ambitions and an outsize ego. He also has a young and demanding second wife and a half-empty office tower running up debts. When a football star from Atlanta's grimmest slum is accused of rape, the city's racial balance is shattered. A Man in Full is packed with the sort of splendid set pieces we've come to expect from Wolfe. A quail hunt on Charlie's 29,000-acre plantation, a stuffed-shirt evening at the symphony, a politically loaded press conference--the author assembles these scenes with contagious delight. The book is also very, very funny. The law firms, like upper- crust powerhouse Fogg Nackers Rendering & Lean, are straight out of Dickens and Wolfe brings even his minor characters, like professional hick Opey McCorkle, to vivid life.

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