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| Author | John Grisham |
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Publication date | 1993 |
The Client (1993) is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham, set mostly in Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana. [1] It is Grisham's fourth novel. [2]
| | |
| Author | John Grisham |
|---|---|
Publication date | 1993 |
The Client (1993) is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham, set mostly in Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana. [1] It is Grisham's fourth novel. [2]
Boyd Boyette, a United States Senator from Louisiana, goes missing. Because of his vocal opposition to a proposed major toxic landfill project by a company known to be Mafia-backed, murder is suspected. But no body can be found and Roy Foltrigg, United States Attorney in New Orleans, is desperate for a suspect. Barry "The Blade" Muldanno, a well-known thug and nephew of Johnny Sulari, acting boss of the New Orleans crime family is suspected. The FBI stalk Muldanno, hoping he'll lead them to the body.
Eleven-year-old Mark Sway, his younger brother Ricky, and their divorced mother Dianne live in a trailer park in Memphis. Mark and Ricky are smoking cigarettes in the woods near their home, when they encounter a man trying to commit suicide by piping exhaust fumes into his car. Trying to remove the hose, Mark is grabbed by the man and forced into the car. The man, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, reveals himself to be lawyer Jerome Clifford. Clifford tells Mark that he is about to kill himself to avoid being murdered by Muldanno, who has revealed to him the location of Boyette's body. Mark manages to escape, and Clifford then shoots himself.
Ricky becomes catatonic after witnessing the suicide and is hospitalized. Authorities—and the Mob—suspect that Clifford may have told Mark where the body is.
At the hospital, the FBI urgently want to talk to Mark. Street-smart beyond his years, he realizes that he will need a lawyer. By coincidence, he meets Regina "Reggie" Love, a lawyer specializing in child abuse cases, who agrees to represent him for a token retainer of one dollar. Reggie suspects that Mark has not told her the complete story, including the location of the body.
Two Mafia operatives, Bono and Pirini, are dispatched from New Orleans to Memphis to see what Mark knows; they hire local "security specialists," Nance and Sisson, to snoop at the hospital. Reggie represents Mark in an interview with the FBI, knowing that she does not have the full story. Roaming the hospital, Mark is cornered and threatened by Nance that he'll kill him if he talks.
Foltrigg, a glory-seeking lawyer with political aspirations, known as "Reverend Roy" because of his penchant for preaching to juries, arrives at the offices of George Ord, the United States attorney in Memphis, where he is less than welcome. Foltrigg and his staff plot methods to get Mark to reveal where the body is hidden, and also plot to get Reggie into court, hoping to pierce attorney-client confidentiality, assuming that Reggie actually knows the location of the body.
The FBI apply to Harry Roosevelt, a judge of the Juvenile Court, to arrange Mark's detention for his own protection. This is reluctantly approved by Roosevelt and Mark is arrested in the hospital room where Ricky is recovering.
Mark and Reggie appear before the judge, but, scared out of his wits, Mark "takes the Fifth" and refuses to reveal what he knows. He is returned to detention, and after faking a medical condition, is taken to the hospital, from which he escapes, eventually taking refuge with Reggie. The Sway family trailer is burned to the ground by Bono and Pirini; the family now have no home and little else.
Dianne loses her job in a minimum-wage sweatshop, but Reggie threatens the company president with a lawsuit, on condition that they keep sending her paycheck and fresh flowers to the hospital.
K. O. Lewis, Deputy Director of the FBI, is drawn into the case. He proposes a deal—if Mark reveals the location of the body, they will place the Sway family in the witness protection program.
Reggie and Mark drive to Clifford's house at the same time as Muldanno's accomplices. They start to dig up the body, which is buried under concrete in Clifford's boat shed, but a melee follows and they flee. Mark and Reggie discover the body and then also flee.
The deal is done and the Sway family agrees to enter witness protection. A special hospital is located to take Ricky; after his recovery, they will be moved elsewhere. As soon as the family flies off in an FBI plane, Reggie reveals the location of the body to the FBI.
The Chicago Tribune wrote that "the pace is plodding and because the book never gathers any momentum, it seems painfully overlong." [3] Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book "opens with a neat hook into the reader's jaw- -and the tension never wavers." [4]
A 1994 film based on the novel was directed by Joel Schumacher and starred Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, and newcomer Brad Renfro. [5] The film was released on July 20, 1994.
For her work in the film, Susan Sarandon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Renfro won for an YoungStar Awards and Young Artist Awards.
The film was so successful that it spawned a television series of the same name, starring JoBeth Williams and John Heard. It ran for one season (1995–1996).
The West Memphis Three are three men convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley Jr. to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin to life imprisonment. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the juveniles killed the children as part of a Satanic ritual.
John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, lawyer, and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his best selling legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 37 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on the first printing.
The Rainmaker is a 1997 American legal drama film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola based on John Grisham's 1995 novel of the same title. It stars Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place, Mickey Rourke, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Roy Scheider, Virginia Madsen, and Teresa Wright in her final film role.
The Pelican Brief is a legal-suspense thriller by John Grisham, published in 1992 by Doubleday. It is his third novel after A Time to Kill and The Firm. Two paperback editions were published, both by Dell Publishing in 1993. A namesake film adaptation was released in 1993 starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.
Brad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut at age 11 with a starring role in The Client (1994). Renfro went on to appear in 21 feature films and won several awards.
The King of Torts (2003) is a legal/suspense novel written by American author John Grisham. Doubleday published the first edition (ISBN 0-385-50804-2) in hardcover format; it immediately debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, remaining in the top 15 for over 20 weeks. Dell Publishing published the paperback edition later in 2003 (ISBN 0-440-24153-7). Penguin Random House released an audiobook version in 2007.
The Chamber (1994) is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham. It is Grisham's fifth novel.
The Firm is a 1991 legal thriller by American writer John Grisham. It was his second book and the first which gained wide popularity. In 1993, after selling 1.5 million copies, it was made into a namesake film starring Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, came into prominence afterwards due to this novel's success.
The Rainmaker is a 1995 novel by John Grisham, his sixth.
The Chamber is a 1996 American legal thriller film directed by James Foley. It is based on John Grisham's 1994 novel of the same name. The film stars Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Lela Rochon, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry, and David Marshall Grant.
The Client is a 1994 American legal thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher, and starring Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Renfro, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony LaPaglia, Anthony Edwards, and Ossie Davis. It is based on the 1993 novel by John Grisham. It was filmed in Memphis, Tennessee.
Trial films is a subgenre of the legal/courtroom drama that encompasses films that are centered on a civil or criminal trial, typically a trial by jury.
Kyle Craig is a fictional character and antagonist in James Patterson's series of novels featuring Washington, D.C. detective Alex Cross. Craig, a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is initially a close friend of Cross and assists the detective in his high-profile investigations, and also occasionally asks Cross for help with his own cases. However, in the 2000 novel Roses Are Red, Craig is revealed to be a criminal who calls himself "The Mastermind", having organized a series of brutal bank robberies and murders. He is eventually brought to justice by Cross. From Violets Are Blue onwards, Craig is one of Cross' most formidable adversaries. In the film adaptations of Patterson's novels Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, Craig is played by Jay O. Sanders.
Ford County is a collection of novellas by John Grisham. His first collection of stories, it was published by Doubleday in the United States in 2009.
The Confession is a 2010 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, his second novel to be published in 2010. The novel is about the murder of a high school cheerleader and how an innocent man was arrested for it. This was Grisham's first novel to be released simultaneously in digital and hardcopy format.
On April 15, 2013, an envelope that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a highly toxic protein, was intercepted at the US Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, D.C. According to reports, the envelope was addressed to the office of Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker. On April 17, 2013, an envelope addressed to President of the United States Barack Obama preliminarily tested positive for ricin.
The Firm is a 1993 American legal thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn and Gary Busey. The film is based on the 1991 novel The Firm by author John Grisham. The Firm was one of two films released in 1993 that were adapted from a Grisham novel, the other being The Pelican Brief.
The Rooster Bar is the 25th legal thriller novel by John Grisham. Grisham was inspired to create the story after reading an article titled "The Law-School Scam" that appeared in The Atlantic magazine in 2014.
The Reckoning is a best-selling novel by John Grisham. In addition to Grisham's typical legal thriller, the book was also characterized by reviewers as "a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, a family saga, a coming-of-age story," "a period piece", and a war novel.
A Time for Mercy, a legal thriller novel by American author John Grisham, is the sequel to A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row. The latest book features the return of the character Jake Brigance, a small-town Mississippi lawyer who takes on difficult cases. The novel was released on October 13, 2020.