Brilliant. Quite different from Grisham’s norm. The Rogue Lawyer of the title, one Sebastian Rudd, is a wonderful creation, a true oddball of a lawyer who defends those no-one else wants to touch. He works out of a bullet-proof van with one employee, a former client and hard man who is driver, clerk and friend. They are a great team. We follow several cases which culminate in Rudd’s son being kidnapped. The boy, now 8, is the result of an unsuitable affair/marriage; the mother now in a lesbian relationship. This is tied up with the chief of police’s daughter disappearing and much skulduggery which is enormously exciting. Rudd often uses questionable and unethical tactics which get him publicity, something he craves. He is an interesting character, in my mind one of Grisham’s best, a very fine book indeed. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
Sebastian Rudd takes the cases no one else wants to take: the drug-addled punk accused of murdering two little girls; a crime lord on death row; a homeowner accused of shooting at a SWAT team. Rudd believes that every person accused of a crime is entitled to a fair trial - even if he has to cheat to get one. He antagonises people from both sides of the law: his last office was fire-bombed, either by drug dealers or cops. He doesn't know or care which. But things are about to get even more complicated. Carl Swagger is the prime suspect in the abduction and presumed murder of 21-year-old Jillian Kemp, the daughter of the assistant chief of police. When Swagger asks Sebastian to represent him, he lets Sebastian in on a terrible secret ... one that will threaten everything he holds dear.
