The Client | John Grisham | Off to See the Wizard

The Client | John Grisham | Best Yet

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The Client

	The Client John Grisham Delta, 2005 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In a weedy lot on the outskirts of Memphis, two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb...Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer left Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most sought-after dead body in America. Now Mark is caught between a legal system gone mad and a mob killer desperate to cover up his crime. And his only ally is a woman named Reggie Love, who has been a lawyer for all of four years. Prosecutors are willing to break all the rules to make Mark talk. The mob will stop at nothing to keep him quiet. And Reggie will do anything to protect her client -- even take a last, desperate gamble that could win Mark his freedom... or cost them both their lives.

From the Hardcover edition.

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Off to See the Wizard

After reading the bestselling paperback "The Firm," I fell into the habit of reading John Grisham's novels. Of the half dozen titles that I read, this is probably the best of the lot. I would rate it as being better than several of his other better known novels.

What made this book stand out in my opinion is the fact that the lead character is a minor. The legal system can be a bewildering labyrinth for most adults. How much more terrifying can it be for a preteen?

The youngster in this case had the misfortune to witness the suicide of a crooked criminal defense attorney. The drunken shyster spoke to the boy before his death and the unfortunate kid soon finds that he is a target for a team of Mafia killers. The dead man knew too much and the mobsters do not want to take the risk that the eleven year old may communicate any incriminating information from the mouthpiece's dying declaration to the authorities.

This is one of Grisham's better efforts. It is a good book filled with suspense. John Grisham is a former state legislator from Mississippi and an attorney, so he knows enough about the practice of law to provide the necessary details. Sometimes, I found it a trifle incredible that the Mafia has suddenly departed New York and New Jersey to set up sattelite offices in the rural South.

As an aside, I have to confess that I gradually tired of Grisham's writing. His approach became overly familiar and formulaic. Many of his books read as if the author was planning for an immediate movie adaptation of the current novel (the Stephen King Movie of the Week syndrome) while he was writing. As a consequence, I simply stopped reading his subsequent books. Grisham can produce page turning prose with the best of them, but after awhile the repetition became monotonous for me. After reading six of his books, I stopped cold.

It was not so much a case that Grisham was not entertaining, he was, but as a reader I had the sense of having been there and done that. Some gifted authors have a talent for writing books that always seem to be fresh and new, even when employing the same set of characters, while others seem to fall into a predictable, if profitable rut. Someday, I may check out another Grisham book to see if I was incorrect in my original assessment.

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Best Yet

This is my 3rd John Grisham book and is the best so far. I liked it so much, that I ordered 3 more of Mr. Grisham's books.

Tom Sawyer Takes on the Mafia, the FBI, and the Courts

If you only read one legal thriller by John Grisham, I strongly urge you to choose The Client. It's a remarkable book that will reward your patience, pique your curiosity, and keep you guessing until almost the very end.

The client has to be the most unusual legal thriller every written. The book's indomitable hero, Mark Sway, is an 11-year-old with a lot of guts and a desire to do the right thing. John Grisham takes that premise and pushes it to the limit by teaming Mark with the only lawyer that Grisham ever wrote positively about, Reggie Love. In the process, Grisham entertains with the petty foibles and vanities of the legal "powers that be" in a way that will make you wish that nice people worked at the law.

Enchanting books have heroes and heroines who intrigue and inspire us. Mark Sway and Reggie Love are well designed for those purposes. Mark is that wonderful combination of scamp, optimist, and idealist that Mark Twain first imagined in the character of Tom Sawyer. Reggie Love is a composite of the loving concern of everyone's favorite aunt combined with the toughness and smarts of Perry Mason.

The Mafia characters are bozos. The FBI agents are cretins. The other characters fade into the woodwork except for Reggie's favorite judge.

Have a ball!

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Great... not a thriller

I must say this is the third book I read from Grisham. It really is a page turner and you really want to know what's next.
The thing I like the most about Grisham's wrtting is the way he describes feelings.... the way he describes the situations.
Mark is just a geniuos and there is no way you would not love him... He's smart and funny, and he is the typical boy who has seen way too much TV....
Reggie... well, she is just the kind lawyer and the one who feels most like Mark's mom.
Honestly, I read the book like in 4 days... I just couldn't put it away... However I didn't like the end, I think that somehow he was tired of writting and at the end everything happens so fast.
Anyway, you will enjoy this book.....

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Grisham Sticks to His Formula Here, and Produces a Decent Read

I've never been a huge fan of John Grisham, but it's hard not to admire an author with such an incredible level of sales success. Whatever his faults, Grisham is clearly able to connect with his audience in a way that few writers can. I've read almost all of his novels now, and I think his first two, THE FIRM and A TIME TO KILL, are by far the best ones. THE CLIENT, Grisham's fourth novel, is moderately enjoyable, but not in the same league.

An earlier review referred to THE CLIENT as a "Disney movie for adults" and I think that serves as an apt description of this novel. This book is entertaining enough, but I think Grisham's major weakness as a writer is on full display here, because nearly all the major characters are essentially caricatures of one sort or another. If you enjoy complex, subtle characterization, you may want to think twice before reading this one. But if you're looking for a highly sentimental "David v. Goliath" type story, then you will probably be pleased with what Grisham dishes up.

Grisham's mains strength is his plotting (he carefully outlines all of his novels in advance), and he structures THE CLIENT in a manner that makes the book a page-turner. In most of his novels, Grisham is fond of writing about the little guy fighting against the big corporate and/or political interests, and he pretty much sticks to that winning formula here, with an eleven-year old hero battling the mafia and the FBI simultaneously. While there are some interesting twists in the plot, I found the story's progression and resolution to be quite predictable.

I know several people who love THE CLIENT, and consider it one of Grisham's best early efforts. While I wouldn't put the novel in that category, it's a nice popcorn read, especially for readers who enjoy storytelling that's written in a more traditional, sentimental style.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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