Gray Mountain by John Grisham

Description

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. Samantha’s offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year, 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. Mattie Wyatt 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. 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.