Just finished this and liked it. The main character, Samantha, loses her high powered job as a financial lawyer in NYC, and travels to Appalachia to work in a Legal Aid Society. Grisham describes the problem of strip mining and the devastating effect on the inhabitants of the areas that are mined. Sam joins a local lawyer, who takes on a huge coal mining company in order to prove their gross negliegence and fraud in a local miner’s black lung disease claim. Plot contains some romance and a murder. Good title for legal mystery fans.
Here is a website that gives you an idea of what strip mining does to the top of a mountain, if you are interested.