The Rooster Bar

John Grisham explores student loan debt and the sharks that profit from it in his latest novel, The Rooster Bar.

Mark, Todd, Zola and Gordy are students at a mediocre law school that doesn’t produce many successful lawyers. Most fail the bar exam, and even more find menial jobs at best. Gordy uncovers a sinister truth about the university when he learns the students aren’t accepted based on grades, but rather to supply money. The school is one of several owned by a New York hedge fund that also owns the banks that finance the student loans. It’s a gigantic scheme and the scam is generating millions of dollars.

Gordy snaps and commits suicide rather than facing his problems. His three friends decide to fight back. They change their names and create their own fictitious law firm. Soon they are hanging out at the courthouse and sweet-talking their way into taking on clients who pay cash for their services. They have to stay one step ahead of the authorities so they aren’t discovered, and by quitting school, they can work on exposing the scam and try to save people from crushing debt.

Grisham knows how to tell a story, and he also enjoys showcasing the shady side of the law profession. Mark, Todd and Zola are hard to like at times due to the methods they use as they try to defeat the system. Their motives are sound, but it sometimes comes with a cost as they end up not really helping their clients. But with that in mind, fans will still make this another bestseller. The Associated Press In 1952, post-Second World War London was battling more than reconstruction, and Kate Winkler Dawson’s Death in the Air is a stellar examination of a turbulent time in the city’s history.

Stagnant, cool air hung over London in December 1952, mixing with the billowing smoke from cheap coal used to heat area homes. The end result was a horrible smog that was so thick that cars crashed, trains derailed and people out walking in familiar neighbourhoods could not find their way home. The effects also made countless people sick with breathing issues, and many died as a result.

While this visible killer was covering London, another killer was working silently, strangling women after earning their trust. When John Reginald Christie was finally apprehended, his story changed, depending on the day. As police began to trace his activities, they soon realized he might be responsible for an earlier murder, and an innocent man might have been executed.

Dawson’s background in documentaries and journalism makes this journey more than just a retelling of the facts. She tracked down people who lived it, and now readers will vividly experience that period as well.

Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, The Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City Kate Winkler Dawson Hachette