The Pelican Brief | John Grisham | Untangling Complex Web of Political Murders

The Pelican Brief | John Grisham | Way better than the movie

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The Pelican Brief

	The Pelican Brief John Grisham Island, 1993 - 436 pages average customer review:based on 208 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Untangling Complex Web of Political Murders

This book is a non-stop, action-packed murder mystery filled with multiple layers of fascinating tangled political, business, and romantic intrigues. John Grisham is at his finest in creating a dynamic reading experience about highly attractive charasmatic people who stumble upon the truth ... during their hedonistic lifestyle in one of America's most colorful cities, New Orleans. Darby Shaw is a twenty-something law student at Tulane University in New Orleans when she learns of the murders of two Supreme Court Justices. One of the victims, Abraham Rosenberg, is the most admired and often quoted law scholar by Thomas Callahan, her constitutional law professor and ... also her lover. The speculation is that conservatives will be apppointed to replace the two Justices. The impact of these expected appointments on the future interpretation of the law will create thunderstorms in the Judicial system well into the future for at least 10 years ...

Darby secluded herself for four days in a law library, digging through briefs, dissents, books, newspapers, essays, and law opinions ... trying to discover what the two murdered Justices had in common. By accident, she stumbles upon a subject of passionate interest to both: the environment. Her tenacity and persistence paid off, she wrote a paper on her discovery and speculated who had the most to gain by their elimination. She gave the paper to her law professor who shared the suppositions with lawyer friend from his law school days, who now works as an attorney for the F.B.I. The head of the F.B.I. discovered the suspect had donated money to the President's last re-election campaign, all of which was deemed legal. The accusations against the suspect were dismissed as mere speculation by the White House ... Yet, in some circles where the paper had circulated, the topic unleashed a wild tiger which hunted for its prey, in this case, Darby Shaw.

One significant turning point in the book is when Thomas Callahan and Darby are out for dinner in the Big Easy. Thomas had too much to drink. Darby cautions him to let her drive, he denies his inebriated state. They have a big fight over this and she storms off, deciding to walk rather than ride with him. After Thomas turns the key in the ignition, a huge explosion occurs flipping the Porsche and knocking Darby face-down on the sidewalk. She arises from a daze ... nearly in shock. One must read the book to discover how she becomes a fugutive from a world famous assassin whom she manages to allude. After Thomas' death, she realizes *she* was the intended victim. This book is an un-put-downable, page-turning, suspense-filled murder mystery which is solved after Darby partners with a Washington Post reporter. Both of them help unravel the reasons for the two murders and help bring the perpetrator to justice. This is a superb novel.
Erika Borsos (erikab93)

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Way better than the movie

Way better than the movie, and I liked the movie. Grisham is so great at character development. Haven't read anything by him that wasn't first class. I just wish he'd get a new naming scheme: The Partner, The Client, The Summons, they're all the same :)

I Enjoyed This One Too!

The subject matter of THE PELICAN BRIEF was several years ahead of its time (seems to be the norm for John Grisham). Within the past few years, conspiracy theories have taken control of the spotlight in movies and books and I feel THE PELICAN BRIEF was a front runner to these other ideas.

Tulane law student, Darby Shaw, has an idea that she didn't realize could mean her death. She came up with a theory that explained the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices, which occurred in one day. Darby writes a brief about this theory whose conspirator is an enemy of pelicans and other animals. Her boyfriend, and law professor, Thomas, gets killed by a car bomb meant for Darby, and she's on the run. While on the run, she meets Washington Post reporter, Gray Grantham, who is determined to get to the bottom of the assassinations and is willing to help her escape.

As is Grisham's habit, he develops the characters so well that the reader can relate to every aspect of them. As Darby is running and hiding in New Orleans, I felt as if I was there, scared, smelling the scents that only New Orleans has, wondering if I'm being watched, panicked, etc.

If I had to choose one of Grisham's strongest qualities of his writing it would have to be his character development. His characters emit emotions to the depth where the reader has empathy and actually lives that part in the story.

THE PELICAN BRIEF is another excellent story and I highly recommend that if you haven't already read this book, you should definitely pick up a copy. It's enticing and action paced. The time will fly by when you're involved with this one!

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Interesting, but stupid (the President, that is)

Someone assassinates two Supreme Court justices (the assassin is a burned out terrorist named Khamel, but the powers that be are baffled. They have no clues.

Darby Shaw spends a few days in the law library and figures out who wanted the hit, in order to stack the Supreme Court. This puts her in jeopardy, and people keep getting murdered around her.

Scary? Well, it might have been, but somehow, we know (I knew) that Darby was going to make it in the end and the "bad guys" were going to have their comeuppance. That was never in doubt.

So, not so scary.

What was interesting was Grisham's description of the law firms, and the lawyers, in Washington, D.C. This was eye-opening, the numbers, the morals, and the career ladder that such people follow.

What was interesting, but stupid, was the President. It's hard to imagine a President this stupid, but I wonder was the model Mr. Ron? And this golfer President turns the real business of running the nation over to a young smoothy by the name of Fletcher Coal, who is one of the "bad guys," in a way, but he has some good traits, too: He can work incessantly and seems to be pretty intelligent. He just lacks, what, heart?

I've read better books by Grisham. There is a story here, but not a page-turning story. Just kind of, "Okay, who's going to fail to assassinate Darby this time?"

I didn't see the movie, but the book seemed to be tailor-made for Hollywood, also, another down-side (compare Grisham's Bleachers, a more recent effort, which does not seem to be targeted so prominently toward a movie script).

Diximus.

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Well done

This story of a girl on the run from a crazed industrialist is well done. If it seems there are a lot of clichees, remember that this book was so well done that it actually started the whole genre of person on the run from shady corporate? government? people. The protagonist is a law student who accidentally stumbles upon the solution to a crime (assassination of supreme court judges). Someone is trying to silence her. The entire story is her running, the people who are trying to help her, and the people who are trying to kill her. Not bad.

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