Double Homicide by Faye and Jonathan Kellerman

I don't really have much to say about these two half-novels. It's a cute idea to have them ostensibly write two stories for one volume, and one that seems inevitable when you consider where the Kellermans are in their careers. But it feels more like a convenient way to clear the backlog of unpublished works from the storage trunk than an example of a sparkling new collaborative spirit. It is clear that he really wrote one and she the other, despite technically sharing author credit on both. The stories are both thoroughly meh. They're not terrible. Nothing outrageous or unbelievable or offensive happens, but nothing great or revelatory does either. The characters are nice enough but nothing to write home about, and there's nothing in either the plot or characterization to to sink your teeth into. Look no further than the cavalcade of cliched metaphors in this review to understand how uninspired these stories are. Each is over before it even seems to have gotten started, with nothing gained but the slaughter of an hour or two. If you're on a train ride through Nebraska and you need something to do with your mind lest you go mad, I suppose the book might be worth a read. But only then.

The King of Torts by John Grisham

Ah, Mr. Grisham, what to do with you? My feelings are ever changing: you're up, you're down, you're up, you're down, you're up. From what I can tell, this book was not particularly popular with readers, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It didn't have any pulse-pounding action or timeless characters that leap off the page and enter your soul, but it was interesting and engaging and I wasn't able to guess what was going to happen next, next, and next. I don't know if I'm out of touch, simply naive, or just easily entertained, but I found the world of mass torts to be completely interesting. Okay, the characters were a little (a little!?) broad, and the morals a bit heavy-handed, but I can understand the urge to exaggerate and parody such an absurd approach to the practice of law. If Grisham wrote more like this, I'd be in for sure.