John Grisham's seventh novel chronicles a law suit against the tobacco industry set in a Biloxi, Mississippi, courtroom. Before his writing career started, as a lawyer in a single-man firm, Grisham frequently took civil cases, including product liability, although never one of the multimillion dollar magnitude nor the nationwide attention that he describes here. As Grisham's fans would expect, The Runaway Jury is much more than a sober and insightful novelization of the vagaries of civil law. Indeed, this novel is a thriller about two competing efforts to rig the jury's verdict: one from the evil tobacco industry, the other from a seemingly innocuous juror. As is typical for Grisham, the little guy wins this battle and brings about a huge defeat for Big Tobacco.

Grisham's thrillers tend to address big social issues as they deliver page-turning drama. Here Grisham takes on two huge topics of...