The Chamber
The author of the number-one bestsellers The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client has written
another spellbinding tale of legal intrigue sure to hit bestseller lists this summer. Twenty-two
years after the bombing deaths of a civil rights activist's two sons, the Klansman on death row
for their murders is mysteriously aided in his last appeal by a young lawyer in a major firm. But
why?
From the Publisher
In 1967 in Greenville, Mississippi, known Klan member Sam Cayhall is accused of bombing the
law offices of Jewish civil rights activist Marvin Kramer, killing Kramer's two sons. Cayhall's
first trial, with an all-white jury and a Klan rally outside the courthouse, ends in a hung jury; the
retrial six months later has the same outcome. Twelve years later an ambitious district attorney in
Greenville reopens the case. Much has changed since 1967, and this time, with a jury of eight
whites and four blacks, Cayhall is convicted. He is transferred to the state penitentiary at
Parchman to await execution on death row. In 1990, in the huge Chicago law firm of Kravitz &
Bane, a young lawyer named Adam Hall asks to work on the Cayhall case, which the firm has
handled on a pro bono basis for years. But the case is all but lost and time is running out: within
weeks Sam Cayhall will finally go to the gas chamber. Why in the world would Adam want to get
involved?
From The Critics
Walter Goodman
So, let's begin with a word of reassurance. If you find your fingers racing through these 486
pages, it may signify merely that few of them demand close study. And as for putting the book
down, I managed to do it without pain a score of times....Mr. Grisham has no pretensions to
being a stylist. As with most other popular novels, the language does not bear inspection. Its
main function is to deliver information, and you don't have to read absolutely every word,
because all significant facts are repeated, usually more than once. Everything is made explicit;
one's imagination is never imposed on. -- New York Times
Publisher's Weekly
Tie-in edition with the forthcoming movie starring Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway. (Oct)
Library Journal
Grisham aims for another best-seller (and a movie?) with a tale that hinges on the bombing of
civil rights advocate Marvin Kramer's offices in 1967. His two sons are killed, and Klansman Sam
Cayhall is convicted. Some 22 years later, as Cayhall approaches execution, a hot young lawyer
asks to defend him.
BookList - Joe Collins
It's a foregone conclusion that Grisham's latest novel will be a best-seller, but now that he doesn't
have to worry about making money, he's apparently decided to flex his literary muscles with a
tale of death-row inmate Sam Cayhall and his lawyer-grandson Adam Hall. Grisham's reputation
as a writer of lawyer espionage novels is well known, but he is equally adept at fleshing out
characters of the modern South. We begin in 1967, when Mississippian and Klan member
Cayhall helps bomb a Jewish lawyer's office and mistakenly kills the attorney's two young sons.
Two trials with all-white juries wind up in mistrials, but eventually the intelligent Sam is
convicted in 1981 and sentenced to the gas-chamber. By 1990, Adam, who has never met Sam,
agrees to file his final appeals shortly before the execution. Like "The Firm" and other Grisham
books, the plot is centered on a race against time, but there is little hint of cloak-and-dagger; in
addition, a subplot that could exonerate Sam is, inexplicably, never developed. Grisham asserts
that most prison officials are against the death penalty, or at least the gas chamber method, and
he provides gruesome details of executions gone wrong. As usual, the dialogue is fast paced,
witty, and screenplay-ready, and only near the end does it become mawkish in the midst of
self-examination and tearful good-byes. Most ironic, however, is that Grisham fans will eat up
this rather uncommercial tale.
Writers
The Rainmaker
Bestselling author John Grisham returns to the courtroom for the first time since A Time to
Kill to weave this riveting tale of legal intrigue and corporate greed. Combining suspense,
narrative momentum, and humor as only John Grisham can, The Rainmaker provides
another spellbinding, thrill-a-minute read.
From the Publisher
In this courtroom thriller, a young man barely out of law school finds himself taking on one
of the most powerful, corrupt, and ruthless companies in America—and exposing a
complex, multibillion-dollar insurance scam.... In his final semester of law school Rudy
Baylor is required to provide free legal advice to a group of senior citizens, and it is there
that he meets his first "clients," Dot and Buddy Black. Their son, Donny Ray, is dying of
leukemia, and their insurance company has flatly refused to pay for his medical treatments.
Rudy soon realizes that the Blacks have been shockingly mistreated by the huge company,
and that he just may have stumbled upon one of the largest insurance frauds anyone's ever
seen—and one of the most lucrative and important cases in the history of civil litigation.
The problem is, Rudy's flat broke, has no job, hasn't even passed the bar, and is about to go
head-to-head with one of the best defense attorneys—and powerful industries—in America.
From The Critics
Michiko Kakutani
In "The Rainmaker," Mr. Grisham peppers his story with lots of behind-the-scenes
glimpses of courtroom maneuverings and informative little asides about the psychology of
defense motions, plea-bargaining and jury selection....Mr. Grisham makes only the most
perfunctory effort to tie all these elements together into a coherent plot and makes even less
of an attempt to relate them in an interesting or believable fashion. -- New York Times
Publisher's Weekly
Grisham's intricate, spellbinding sixth novel differs from his last fewit's his only book with
first-person narration and his first since his debut to be set in a courtroombut the trademark
Grisham touches are in place. Rookie attorney Rudy Baylor is the customary David fighting
a legal Goliath (here a multibillion-dollar insurance company), and the suspense builds with
impeccable pacing despite workaday prose. When the modestly sized law firm that
contracted for his future services unexpectedly merges with a tony Ivy League firm, Rudy
finds himself without a job and bankrupt. Filing a $10 million lawsuit takes away some of
the sting, as does a lonely elderly woman's offer of low rent on a small apartment in
exchange for rewriting her will. To make a living, Rudy finds himself chasing ambulances for
a racketeering shyster, leading to his becoming enthralled with a beautiful young woman
hospitalized by her husband's murderous attack. When Rudy agrees to represent the
parents of a dying 22-year-old denied insurance coverage for a bone-marrow transplant, he
finds that he is up against the firm that broke contract with him. Melding the courtroom
savvy of A Time to Kill with the psychological nuance of The Chamber, imbued with wry
humor and rich characters, this bittersweet tale, the author's quietest and most thoughtful,
shows that Grisham's imagination can hold its own in a courtroom as well as on the violent
streets outside. Major ad/promo; large-print edition, ISBN 0-385-47512-8; audio rights to
BDD Audio. (May)
Library Journal
Narrator Frank Muller's voice is just right for conveying both lawyer Rudy Baylor's early
cynicism and restoration in Grisham's crowd-pleasing 1995 title. The story pits Rudy
against two Goliaths: a downtown Memphis law firm and a scandalously inhumane
insurance company. Tension rises as Rudy builds the case of a poor family whose son, in
need of a transplant they cannot afford, is dying because their claim, covered in their policy,
has been denied by the insurance company. Things become ominous, as in all Grisham
stories, but there is a humorous subplot and a romance. We begin to care for Rudy as he
sheds a moral bankruptcy developed in pursuit of his law degree and regains his original
interest in the law as a way to fight injustice. An excellent production; recommended.Mark
Pumphrey, Polk Cty P.L., Columbus, N.C.
Client
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.
From the Publisher
In a weedy lot on the outskirts of memphis, two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull upt ot the
curb... Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden
cigarrette when a chance encounter with a suicidal laywer 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 Critics
Publisher's Weekly
Fans of the bestselling Grisham will be pleased to note that he is once more on Firm ground:
his latest legal thriller offers a clever, compelling plot coupled with two singular
protagonists sure to elicit readers' empathy. Eleven-year-old Mark Sway, taking his kid
brother for a smoke behind their Memphis trailer park, witnesses the suicide of a lawyer
``driven crazy'' by a lethal secret. Before he dies, the man confides to Mark where the body
of a recently murdered U.S. senator lies buried, and the game's afoot. Trailed by the police,
the FBI and assorted Mafia types (the deceased politico was the victim of ``a successful
New Orleans street thug''), Mark retains--for one dollar--the services of Reggie Love, a
50ish female lawyer. This uncommon attorney-client relationship adds an affecting,
unusually humanistic layer to the novel's tension-filled events. Mark, raised by a divorced
mother and wise beyond his years, thinks chiefly in terms of movies and TV; Reggie, a
street-smart survivor of an acrimonious divorce, is often unsure whether to hug or slug her
precocious client. True to form, Grisham employs just enough foreshadowing to keep the
suspense rolling (``Neither of them could know that . . . ''), and propels his action at the
requisite breakneck pace. Occasional plot improbabilities and stylistic quibbles--a few
fuzzy characterizations; overstatement of already obvious points; Mark's sporadic adult
phraseology--will not deter readers from enjoying a rousing read. 950,000 first printing;
Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; Reader's Digest Condensed Book
selection. (Mar.)
School Library Journal
YA-- While sneaking into the woods to smoke forbidden cigarettes, preteen brothers Mark
and Ricky find a lawyer committing suicide in his car. Mark tries to save the man but is
instead grabbed by him and told the location of the body of a murdered U. S. senator--a
murder of which the lawyer's Mafia-connected client is accused. Witnessing the successful
suicide sends Ricky into shock and Mark into a web of lies, half-truths, and finally into
refusal to tell the confided secret to the police. Mark accidentally but fortuitously hires a
lawyer, Reggie Love, who steers him through a maze of FBI agents, legal proceedings,
judges, ambitious lawyers, and hit men. Love's 11-year-old, street-smart client defies the
judicial system to protect himself and his family. This thriller is unique in its theme and in
its suspense mixed with humor. A sure ``all-night'' read.-- Katherine Fitch, Lake Braddock
Secondary School, Burke, VA
BookList - Ray Olson
The newest member of the sure-fire-number-one-bestseller club is going to score big again.
For the author of "The Firm" and "The Pelican Brief" here merges two tried-and-true
genres--the legal thriller and the boys' adventure yarn. His hero is 11-year-old Mark Sway,
who, with his 8-year-old brother, witnesses a Mafia-defending shyster's suicide,
unfortunately not before he's learned why the creep's offing himself--a secret that one Barry
the Blade in particular is not going to let the lawyer live with. Now that Mark knows it, he's
in danger, too, and not only from the bad guys. A politically ambitious U.S. attorney (one
of that new breed of villain, the Reagan appointee) is hot on Barry's case, and he'll pull any
string, ruin any life, to get ahead. So the cops and the FBI start coming down hard on Mark.
But Mark's a bright, resourceful kid, and he finds an attorney, Reggie Love, a former society
matron who survived a horrible divorce, went to law school, and became a specialist in
defending children. Together they make a sterling team, although, really, this is Mark's book
and one helluva good read, not to mention the movie possibilities. If Macaulay ("Home
Alone") Culkin can stave off a growth spurt and a voice change long enough, here's his
chance to make it as a "serious" actor.