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.