John Grisham's new book, "The Appeal," recently arrived in bookstores. After recent forays into sports fiction, nonfiction and international espionage, the best-selling author has returned to the genre in which he made his name - the legal thriller.

"The Appeal" is as much about politics as it is about the legal system, which makes sense given that jurisprudence these days is consumed in politics, whether in the context of the federal courts (where the partisan Senate Judiciary Committee runs roughshod over presidential appointments) or the state courts (where judges in many states, including Texas, are elected in expensive mudslinging political races).

Though the new book is set in Grisham's home state of Mississippi, the scenarios could just as credibly been created in Texas. Ultimately, the question the novel presents is, "Can judicial elections be manipulated by mass quantities of money thrown at defense-oriented (but otherwise unqualified) candidates, whose campaigns are funded and orchestrated by political pros retained by big business - in exchange for the judge's commitment to rule in favor of limited liability in every case, regardless of its particular facts or applicable law?"

That being the question, Grisham's imagination fires on all cylinders in providing the answer. With his customary cynical flair, he serves up some zingers that cut to the heart of the messed up judicial/political system that currently serves Texas and other states. Some examples:

• A major chemical company on the wrong side of a $41 million judgment must find a way to get it reversed on appeal. It hires Judicial Vision, a "consulting firm" that explains what it does to its new client, "We do campaigns. We target a Supreme Court justice and take him out." The client responds, "You're saying, for your $8 million fee, I can buy myself a Supreme Court justice who earns $110,000 a year? Politics. I guess that's cheaper than the verdict."

• In the judicial/political campaign, which features a "blitzkrieg" media campaign against the incumbent, the strategy was simple: "The trick, of course, was to convert Sheila McCarthy from the sensible moderate she was into the raging liberal they needed her to be."

• When Hon. Shelia McCarthy is faced with having to write a dissenting opinion in a death-penalty case where the defendant was clearly deprived of many constitutional rights, her campaign manager tells her to shelve her dissent until after election day, as she's being hammered by the blitzkrieg for being soft on crime. She acknowledges the obvious when she says, "I'm not a judge anymore. I'm a politician."

• And when the tort-reform judicial candidate has his child maimed for life in a clear case of both product liability and medical malpractice, because he's owned by Judicial Vision and its clientele, he knows he must abandon his valid litigation claim. "I can't sue. I'd make a mockery of myself. How can I, a detached jurist, suddenly swap sides because of my family's tragedy?"

Though fictional, these are the sort of tough issues facing today's jurisprudential system. The movement in Texas to have judges appointed on the basis of their qualifications, scholarship and impartiality is now dormant. Both political parties seem to like having trial judges and appellate justices they can call their own.

In an author's note at the end of the book, Grisham says that, although his characters and plot are fictional, "there is a lot of truth in this story. As long as private money is allowed in judicial elections, we will see competing interests fight for seats on the bench. The issues are fairly common. Most of the warring factions are adequately described. The tactics are all too familiar. The results are not far off the mark."

Let the people say "Amen."

As long as Texas requires its judiciary to get elected on the basis of party loyalty and political perspective, then, as John Grisham suggests in "The Appeal," what makes us think justice and the good guys will prevail in the end?

Talmage Boston is a former chairman of the State Bar of Texas' litigation section. This column first appeared in the Houston Business Journal, a sister publication.