The Client - by John Grisham (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Firm catapulted Grisham into the ranks of this country's most popular authors, spending 47 weeks on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list and 18 weeks as number one in paperback. Now Grisham has crafted another gripping tale of legal intrigue. A young boy is inadvertantly present at the bizarre suicide of a New Orleans defense attorney on the eve of the biggest trial of his career.

Book Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A white-knuckle legal thriller that begins in a weedy lot on the outskirts of Memphis, when two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb. . . .

"The desire to find out what happens next keeps the reader turning the pages. Grisham is an absolute master of the chase story."--The Washington Post

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 Back Cover

In the two years since The Firm first captured the imagination of America's readers, John Grisham, with three consecutive number-one bestsellers, has become one of the most popular authors of our time. Now, in The Client, he has written a novel so irresistible, so thoroughly entertaining and satisfying, that it is sure not only to please his millions of fans, but to win him new ones as well. This is the story of eleven-year-old Mark Sway, who, as the novel opens, witnesses the bizarre suicide of a New Orleans attorney. Just before he dies, the lawyer tells Mark a deadly secret concerning the recent murder of a Louisiana Senator, whose accused killer, Mafia thug Barry Muldanno, is about to go to trial. The police, the federal prosecutor and the FBI pressure Mark to tell them the attorney's last words, but he knows that with the mob watching his every move, revealing his secret will almost surely get him killed. So Mark, streetwise and old beyond his years, hires a lawyer: Reggie Love, a fifty-two-year-old divorcee who's been through more than anyone could imagine and survived, basically, because she's tough. And feisty. And loves helping kids overlooked or abused by the system. But when Mark's life is threatened, and Reggie discovers her office has been bugged, and even the Juvenile Court judge says Mark has no choice but to talk, she realizes that this time she's in way over her head. But then Mark comes up with a plan... a crazy plan, in Reggie's opinion, but it's their only hope. And it just might work. With the page-turning suspense and terrific plot twists that have become John Grisham's trademark, he has once again crafted a novel that simply cannot be put down. But in The ClientGrisham has gone a step further - with a cast of unforgettable characters headed by the most original hero in years, he has mixed equal parts humor and warmth to truly expand the boundaries of the legal thriller.

Review Quotes

"Grisham at his best."--The Atlanta Journal

"Engrossing . . . Grisham keeps the pages of The Client turning faster than lawyers can scribble on legal pads."--San Francisco Chronicle

"The desire to find out what happens next keeps the reader turning the pages. Grisham is an absolute master of the chase story."--The Washington Post

"Heart-pounding . . . fast-paced."--The Orlando Sentinel

"Absorbing . . . wildly original."--Cosmopolitan

"John Grisham continues to dazzle. . . . [The Client] is richly textured, cunningly crafted, and poignant, and boasts a refreshingly different hero: an eleven-year-old boy. . . . Everything rings true, from the authentic milieu and vividly portrayed supporting cast to the behind-the-scenes view of the criminal justice system."--The Milwaukee Journal

About the Author

John Grisham is the author of numerous #1 bestsellers, including The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Innocent Man, The Whistler, The Boys from Biloxi, and many more. His books have been translated into nearly fifty languages. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. He lives on a farm in central Virginia.