Gray Mountain by John Grisham, 384 pages

This is a John Grisham novel that deals with the issue of Mountain Top Removal coal mining.  If you are a fan of big business, don't read this book.  It will just irritate you.  On the other hand, if you don't mind considering that big business might deem their bottom line more important than say, the people living in the communities where they do business, then sit down and enjoy the story.

The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer is a hotshot young lawyer working in the real estate department of a mega law firm in New York City.  Samantha loses her job as a result of the financial crash and is told if she interns for a non-profit agency for one year she will keep her health insurance and have the prospect of returning to the firm.  Samantha ends up working for Legal Aid in Brady, Virginia, deep in Appalachia.

There she learns that she can truly assist people in need and she's darned good in a courtroom.  She also gets involved in some pretty nasty business involving coal companies, environmental disasters and black lung disease.

My beef with this book is that many of the story lines were not resolved.  I hope that means that John Grisham will return to Samantha and Brady, Virginia in another book.