Student debt explored in Grisham's new thriller

Hodder & Stoughton is publishing a new "highly topical" legal thriller from John Grisham this October, The Rooster Bar, inspired by the student debt crisis.

In The Rooster Bar, Grisham will shine a light on the levels of debt faced by students today as three law school friends are caught up in a money-making scam when they discover their sub-standard law school is in fact owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator, who also happens to own a bank specialising in student loans.

As they convene at The Rooster Bar to drown their sorrows, they realise there may be a way to escape their debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a dollar or two in the process.

Hodder publisher Oliver Johnson, who has been Grisham’s UK editor for over 25 years, promised the book would come complete with "suspense, jeopardy and legal shenanigans galore".

"John Grisham is always topical and always entertaining," said Johnson. "When so many young people today are saddled with swingeing debts after graduation it’s no surprise that John Grisham turns in his latest thriller to what would happen if a group of law students decided to cook up an elaborate scam and get their revenge on a system that is stacked against them. Suspense, jeopardy and legal shenanigans galore in one of John's most engrossing books ever."

Hodder will publish in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 24th October 2017.

Last month Hodder published the paperback edition of The Whistler and in June Camino Island became the number one Sunday Times hardback fiction bestseller.