Intrigue

Gray Mountain by John Grisham on audio  

From Goodreads; 

John Grisham has a new hero . . . and she’s full of surprises.  The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits, and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is one of the “lucky” associates.  She’s offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for  one year without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she’d get her old job back. 
 
In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part of the world she has only read about. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady resident and head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is there to teach her how to “help real people with real problems.” For the first time in her career, Samantha prepares a lawsuit, sees the inside of an actual courtroom, gets scolded by a judge, and receives threats from locals who aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town. And she learns that Brady, like most small towns, harbors some big secrets. 
 
Her new job takes Samantha into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, rules are ignored, regulations are flouted, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack from Big Coal. Violence is always just around the corner, and within weeks Samantha finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly. 

With thanks to Wikipedia 

 Catherine Taber, narrator

With thanks to Wikipedia

In 2000, the Georgia native made her feature film debut starring alongside Soleil Moon Frye and Wil Wheaton in the coming of age dramedy The Girls’ Room, where she and Frye play college roommates with contrasting lifestyles.[3][4][5]

Taber got her break into video game voice-overs in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003,[6] where she played Mission Vao.[7][8] She voiced Penelo in Final Fantasy XII, for which she was nominated for a National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR)

Award for Supporting Role in a Drama in 2006.[9]

She was the voice of Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated film and television series that aired on Cartoon Network from 2008 to 2014. Although she auditioned for the part, she credits her video game roles in the Star Wars universe as helping her become a fan and landing the part.[10]

She also voiced Amidala in the related Star Wars video games, as well as the character Vette in Star Wars: The Old Republic. She voiced Princess Leia in the Star Wars: Force Unleashed video games,[1] and provided voices during production of the now cancelled animated comedy series Star Wars Detours. Meanwhile, in live-action roles, she had a starring role in the horror movie The Morningside Monster which screened at the Phoenix Film Festival in April 2014.[11]

Outside of science fiction films and games, she voiced Ginger the Pig in A Pig’s Tail, an animated 2012 short film made by Aardman Animations for The Humane Society.[12][13][14] She also runs a charity website called Games for Soldiers where she collects video game donations for U.S. soldiers overseas.[15][16]

Beginning in 2016, Taber has provided voice work on Nickelodeon’s The Loud House, voicing Lori Loud, Katherine Mulligan, Girl Jordan, and other characters.[17]

Taber also voiced female Jesse in both seasons of the video game Minecraft: Story Mode (2015–17), which was first released by Telltale Games on October 12, 2015.[18][19]

In 2021, Taber reprised her role as Katherine Mulligan from The Loud House in the live-action film A Loud House Christmas.[20]

REVIEW

I really liked this book.  Our main character is a woman who is bright and learned and has common sense without a checkered past that gets convoluted and irrational and makes her more “human”.  I am relieved the find a main character that is not a recovering alcoholic and hard as nails to boot.  That is a bit overdone now.  

The timing of the story line reminds me of that song… The hazy, lazy days of summer… It is not particularly slow but very detailed and the death of one of the main characters should have catapulted the story into a faster gear but somehow it did not.  It only served to take out the predictable love story I personally foresaw and set a few new story lines into action whilst complicating some others.  

In all I enjoyed the book.  I do not wish it to be written on a faster more action-packed pace.  I am quite happy with the la-di-da effect the pace created.  Coal mine country and mountain top stripping is things I know nothing about so I found the details surrounding the intrigue created by these practices fascinating.  I would give this book a high 3* rating.  

The narrator is pitch perfect for this book.  She sounds young but grounded.  Vulnerable but tough and her pace added a lot to the lazy summer day effect I have mentioned.  I would gladly give her a 4* review.  

In total thus I will give this book a 4* review and recommend it to fans of Grisham.

We do not currently have this book in stock.  But keep an eye out.  We are sure to get a copy soon!