The Runaway Jury, Week 4

Welcome to the final discussion of The Runaway Jury.

Did the book end like you thought it would? How surprised were you by everything that happened in the final chapters? Did you think the book had a satisfying ending? 

I was glad that Fitch and his team ended up losing the trial. I thought that Marlee and Nicholas were probably running a scam on him, but I wasn't totally sure. I thought that it seemed like Nicholas had been leaning towards the prosecution throughout, so I was glad that he didn't waver from that. I was disappointed that he stooped so low as to get two jurors kicked off the jury. And, I couldn't believe that he was willing to poison Herman to get him off the jury. I know the poison wasn't going to kill him, but still--that's a pretty big line to cross!

What did you think when Marlee met with Fitch at the end to return the money? I wasn't completely able to understand the section where Marlee is selling and buying stocks with the money, but I'm guessing she was just trying to disrupt the stock market with the tobacco industry to cause more harm? I assumed she was doing that to make even more money, but it doesn't seem like that was what was happening. Do you think Marlee was justified in manipulating the jury due to her background and parents' deaths? I could understand why watching her parents waste away would be really hard on her. I don't think infiltrating a jury was the best way to deal with her grief, but I understand why she thought it was. 

I couldn't believe that the jury awarded the plaintiff 400 million dollars. That is a crazy amount of money. Do you think it really did a lot of harm to the tobacco companies? I just always feel like big corporations like that always seem to land back on their feet, even after doing big pay outs. I know the end of the book hypothesizes that the problems in the stock market will bring about the end of the tobacco companies, but we know they still exist now, 30 years after this book was published. 

Were you surprised that Marlee and Nicholas were able to get the jury to agree to a verdict, even though there were so many different moving parts happening in this last section? So many people were working for themselves and had ulterior motives. And, so many characters had to leave the jury or think in just the right way to make the verdict happen. I think it was surprising that it all ended up coming together in the end! 

How would you rate the book? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to a friend? If you liked this book and would like to read and watch similar titles, check out this list I created! Make sure to let me know if you check out anything on the list. 

Before you go, check out the video below to hear John Grisham talk about the inspiration behind his writing. 

I hope you enjoyed the book this month! Make sure to leave a comment to let me know what you thought. I hope you'll join us again next month as we read A Gentleman in Moscow. I hope to hear from you in the comments!