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Start giftingThe Price of Justice
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Learn moreThis nonfiction legal thriller traces the fourteen-year struggle of two lawyers to bring the most powerful coal baron in American history to justice.
Don Blankenship, head of Massey Energy since the early 1990s, ran an industry that provides nearly half of America's electric power. But wealth and influence weren't enough for Blankenship and his company, as they set about destroying corporate and personal rivals, challenging the Constitution, purchasing the West Virginia judiciary, and willfully disregarding safety standards in the company's mines—mines in which scores died unnecessarily.
As Blankenship hobnobbed with a West Virginia Supreme Court justice in France, his company polluted the drinking water of hundreds of citizens; he himself fostered baroque vendettas against anyone who dared challenge his sovereignty over coal country. Just about the only thing that stood in the way of Blankenship's tyranny over a state and an industry was a pair of odd-couple attorneys, Dave Fawcett and Bruce Stanley, who undertook a legal quest to bring justice to this corner of America. From the backwoods courtrooms of West Virginia they pursued their case all the way to the US Supreme Court and to a dramatic decision declaring that the wealthy and powerful are not entitled to purchase their own brand of law.
The Price of Justice is a story of corporate corruption so far-reaching and devastating it could have been written a hundred years ago by Ida Tarbell or Lincoln Steffens. And as Laurence Leamer demonstrates in this captivating tale, because it's true, it's scarier than fiction.
Laurence Leamer is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including The Kennedy Women and The Price of Justice. He has worked in a French factory and a West Virginia coal mine, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal. His play, Rose, was produced off Broadway last year. He lives in Palm Beach, Florida, and Washington, DC, with his wife, Vesna Obradovic Leamer.
Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, musician, and Earphones Award–winning narrator who was named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013.
Reviews
“Laurence Leamer does a superb job of condensing this fifteen-year legal brawl into a highly readable and entertaining narrative. Greed, arrogance, injustice, corruption—it has it all, and, sadly, it’s all true. Fortunately, it also has some heroes. This is a book I wish I had written.”
“Laurence Leamer has produced a masterful legal thriller that will stun readers at every page. He tells a riveting story of intrigue, corrupt politics, and the corrosive effects of power if left unchecked. But the real story is about a pair of vigilant lawyers who ensure that in America’s democracy—even in its back-country courthouses—justice can’t be sold to the highest bidder. Leamer’s new book is a tour de force; it will stand up against the best legal dramas of our time.”
“Don Blankenship and Massey Energy have caused catastrophic environmental damage in Appalachia. But thanks to two intrepid lawyers, there is hope in the ravaged land. The Price of Justice is bound to be an environmental and legal classic.”
“Riveting and compulsively readable…Leamer has produced a Shakespearean tale of greed, corporate irresponsibility, and personal hubris on the one hand, and idealism, commitment to justice, and personal sacrifice on the other. Blankenship is a villain for all time, and Stanley and Fawcett are lawyers who bring honor to their profession.”
“Leamer offers a compelling nonfiction thriller that traces the story, steeped in the particular culture of dangerous coal country, from back-room influence peddling to courtroom drama, through arduous efforts to get and keep the issues before the media, and, finally, during the long, hard task of getting the case heard by the Supreme Court. Leamer is masterful at presenting the important issues, strong personalities, political and legal machinations, and economic stakes of the challenge to Massey, looking beyond the law to reveal a case about social inequities, greed, and arrogance.”
“[Leamer] tells the complex legal story well, making sense of the procedural machinations and crafting a compelling narrative that rivals good courtroom fiction…This archetypal tale of might versus right is all the more riveting for being true. Readers in the legal profession and admirers of courtroom stories, whether fiction or nonfiction, will appreciate this book.”
“A well-constructed nonfiction legal thriller…An eye-opening story about the relations among politics, business, and justice.”
“The Price of Justice is the nail-biting, harrowing story of two courageous trial lawyers facing down corporate greed, Wall Street law firms, powerful politicians, and corrupt judges in the hardscrabble and dangerous coal fields of West Virginia to protect the safety of miners and the health of our nation. I have nothing but admiration for these lawyers and this modern-day David and Goliath tale.”
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