By Mark Gimenez. Grade B+
John Bookman – Book to his friends – is a tenured professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He’s thirty-five, handsome and unmarried. He teaches Constitutional Law, reduces senators to blithering fools on political talk shows, and is often mentioned as a future Supreme Court nominee.
Con Law by Mark Gimenez
But Book is also famous for something more unusual. He likes to take on lost causes and win. Consequently, when he arrives at the law school each Monday morning, hundreds of letters await him, letters from desperate Americans around the country seeking his help. Every now and then, one letter captures his attention and Book feels compelled to act.
In the first of a thrilling new series from the author of international bestsellers The Colour of Law and Accused, Book investigates a murder in the corrupt world of deepest, darkest Texas.
In this new novel by Mark Gimenez, John Bookman, a.k.a. “Book” is a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Texas. He is often mentioned for a post at the Supreme Court, but he would rather shape the minds of the young law-students into humanitarian lawyers than letting them enter the corporate rat-race. He is quite famous for his TV talk shows and wars of words with politicians, and is more renowned as an author. However, Book is also famous and popular for something that many would consider unusual. He is a magnet for taking on lost cases, and winning them. And when one of his old students and intern writes to him about a large-scale environmental crime going on in Marfa, West Texas, Book is hooked.
A former railroad town, Marfa reached the peak of its fame in the 1956 film Giant, starring James Dean and Rock Hudson. The town was rescued from its decline into poverty and joblessness by an art movement, initiated by a Donald Judd. Now, a haven for the rich folk from Dallas, Marfa seems to be torn between its old-age ideologies, and the quest for a modern future. However, nowhere is the tension between old Marfa and new Marfa more pronounced than in the controversy over fracking. (Hydraulic fracturing is the fracturing of a rock by pressurized liquid. However, Induced Hydraulic Fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a technique wherein water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and is injected with high pressure into wellbores to create fractures in the earth. This technique is immensely popular in oil-wells and gas-wells. Yeah, I had to Google that to understand the premise of the book better). The locals working the natural gas wells are intensely protective of the industry that provides so many of them with jobs and equally fierce in their opposition to crusading environmentalists who seem to threaten their source of livelihood.
Through the character Professor Bookman and his Con Law One class, the book delivers a reasonable volume of constitutional law lessons, but it’s delivered in a way that is both easy to digest and interesting to read, especially for a non-American audience. And adding the fact that Mark Gimenez has been a lawyer, it would be safe to assume that most of the facts mentioned are correct. However, like some of his earlier books as well, the pace of the story is EXTREMELY slow. A lot of facts were repeated over and over again which made it boring . It often seemed like Gimenez was beating around the bush to fill up pages. Book is a quirky, interesting character, and so are the rest. But the author wastes too many words getting to the real action, delving too deep in the town’s history and the fracking industry. The dialogues are snappy, and quick, and there are enough funny one-liners to keep you turning the pages. A little more suspense wouldn’t have done any harm.
Final verdict: It gets boring sometimes, but if you persevere, it should be worth it. Just don’t compare it to Grisham.
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