The Rainmaker
John Grisham, 1995
A broke law student sues an insurance company for a family it refused to help, and finds out what a lawsuit really costs.
John Grisham
John Grisham's legal thrillers tend to follow people who are outmatched and underpaid, and who keep going anyway: a broke law student taking on an insurer in The Rainmaker, a young associate in The Street Lawyer who sees what his firm really protects. The stakes are usually money and survival rather than courtroom fireworks, and the pages turn because the next problem is always concrete. Start with The Rainmaker if you want the clearest taste of that, or The Client if you'd rather watch a kid and a struggling lawyer try to stay ahead of people with more power.
Feels like society, unease and power.
Start with The Rainmaker.
Grisham practiced law in Mississippi for nearly a decade and served in the state House; he wrote his first novel in the early mornings before work.
The slowest meal you will ever serve, and the most instructive.
An hour passed. Lunch proceeded as if these starving souls were feasting on seven courses with no hope of another meal. Their wobbly forks and spoons moved back and forth, up and down, in and out, as if laden with precious metals. Time was of absolutely no consequence. They yelled at each other when words stirred them. They dropped food on the floor until I couldn’t bear to watch anymore. I even ate my Jell-O. Bosco, still covetous, watched my every move. Miss Birdie fluttered around the room, chirping about this and that. Books by John Grisham
The Pelican Brief
John Grisham, 1992
A law student's hunch about two murdered Supreme Court justices makes her the target of a hunt she never asked for.
The Street Lawyer
John Grisham, 1985
A young associate witnesses a terrifying heist in a high-stakes law firm, forcing him to confront the true power structures that lie beneath the veneer of corporate justice.
Sycamore Row
John Grisham, 2013
After a Mississippi man hangs himself, a handwritten will sets lawyer Jake Brigance against a town determined to bury the past.
The Client
John Grisham, 1993
A boy who knows where a body is buried becomes the most wanted witness in Memphis, and the only lawyer who will help him is one step from losing everything.
Skipping Christmas
John Grisham, 2001
A couple decides to skip Christmas entirely—no tree, no gifts, no parties—and discovers how much the holiday costs them in every sense.
Rogue Lawyer
John Grisham, 2015
A criminal defense lawyer takes the cases nobody else in the county will touch — and pays for it in threats, cheap motels and a bodyguard called Partner.
Gray Mountain
John Grisham, 2014
A young Wall Street lawyer, laid off after the crash, takes a legal-aid job in Appalachian coal country, where the cases are as dangerous as the industry.
The Racketeer
John Grisham, 2012
A disbarred lawyer in a minimum-security federal camp explains the rules of his new life—and what a man with nothing left can do with them.
The Whistler
John Grisham, 2016
A tip about a corrupt Florida judge sends two judicial investigators into a case with higher powers behind it. Grisham's patient procedural suspense and a wry, road-trip partnership.
Playing for Pizza
John Grisham, 2007
A battered third-string quarterback gets an unlikely second chance in Italy, where American football is smaller, stranger, and played for pride and pizza.
Bleachers
John Grisham, 2003
A star quarterback returns to the town that worshipped him and the coach who made him, to reckon with old glory and old wounds.
A Time to Kill
John Grisham, 1989
A young Mississippi lawyer takes a case that splits his town, testing what justice costs when everyone knows everyone's history.
The Runaway Jury
John Grisham, 1996
A tobacco trial in Biloxi becomes a war over the jury itself: surveillance, money and a stranger who may be playing everyone.
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