Gray Mountain is a typical Grisham book. And I know: it’s not my typical type of book to read. But it was recommended—in spite of it being a known typical Grisham book—due to an element of the plot. Here, a young lawyer who has been practicing for years, suddenly finds her practice and career focus shift by forces out of her immediate control. And indeed, I, as another lawyer who’d been in it for years and suddenly had a shift in career focus (and the manner in which I used my law degrees), appreciated reading that perspective of this protagonist. That was good. That was enjoyable. But that was personal.
Otherwise, the book was a regular, Grisham lawyer mystery. In a way, this is just a snippet of our lawyer Samantha’s life, as her life takes that hard turn, changing focus in her career, her personal life, even her own narrative. (Again, that’s what led me to the book, and that part I very much enjoyed reading.) But during this snippet, a lot of events take place, and many are just left, as they should be in the way the book ended, but this can feel incomplete to some readers.
True, this leaves the book less than good. As one friend put it, it seems almost as if Grisham just wanted to write about this or that (big firms, coal companies, mountaintop removal, etc.), so he threw all of those things in this story joined only by these events occurring in our protagonist’s life. And I agree with that friend that outside of Samantha’s personal shift, the tale lacks clear traditional plot with a good conclusion to so many elements of conflict that arise. Several lines felt they could develop more fully, but they didn’t just wind up anti-climactic; they really just didn’t wind up. Incomplete. Okay, so you know that’s the rest of the story as life goes on for the characters when we leave them, so I understand how or why we have little warp-up, but that lack of conclusion still lingers for the reader.
If you like typical Grisham, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. For me, it was basic. Not bad, but not memorable. And less than those books that offer me new and different. But certainly better than those I don’t even finish.