Newly qualified lawyer Rudy Baylor can't get a job for love or money, so he tries another route into his chosen profession by seeing if he can get a good case; he gets lucky and finds himself representing a poor working family that had been maltreated by an insurance company. Can one recent graduate take on big-insurance? Can Rudy be a rainmaker for the disenfranchised family? If anyone can tell an interesting way that this could be done it's Grisham; although like in quite a few of his books it feels like he dies not make the antagonists as smart as they would have had to be to have accumulated so much reach, power and resources. A 7 out of 12 Three Star read for me.

2024 read

Law student Rudy Baylor is graduating from law school and is ready to start working for a firm. As part of finishing his coursework, he visits a retirement center where students provide law assistance to seniors. He researches a case that becomes important in his working life. When the firm’s employment offer falls through, he finds himself in a situation with little money, no job, and the need to pass the bar exam. This is another of Grisham’s legal-related books, though more of a courtroom drama than a thriller. The villain is an insurance company and the victim a poor family whose son is dying of leukemia. The storyline is engaging. It is filled with colorful characters. It is told in the first-person present tense by Rudy, so the reader is privy to his thoughts and motivations as he searches for a job and pursues his cases. He has a quick wit and sarcastic sense of humor. It explores legal ethics from the perspective of a new lawyer who wants to “do the right thing” while dealing with unscrupulous tactics of others. The story is entertaining and a fast read despite its length. The downsides include a bit of ageism and sexism, and a subplot related to an abused spouse does not work as well as the court case. Recommended to those that enjoy a story that engages the brain and provides an opportunity to root for the underdog.

Good book, less than satisfying ending...if I say more it will be a spoiler. I thought it better than some Grisham books. The struggles of a young lawyer as he faces the more sordid side of life here.

****Spoiler Below ****

This is one of those books that left me sort of worn out with the struggles of life. It's not an escapist book as if you're having your own struggles going through the ones here will not exactly give relief. The people here including our protagonist get regularly slapped down by life and even if they "win" they still seem to lose...at least most times.

Bueno, digamos que estuve mirando fijamente este libro por lo menos por dos años. Estaba en el librero de mi papá, y el hecho de que el no lo leyera me dolía. El día llegó en que me anime a sacarlo de entre sus pares y me aventure en sus paginas.
Me enamore de Rudy Baylor casi al instante. Si algún día necesito un abogado, por favor que sea él.
Es un personaje muy bien construido, y una hermosa persona.
La historia es atrapante desde el capitulo uno, cada uno de sus personajes tiene una esencia propia que es difícil pasar por alto, y la narración es tan natural que sin darte cuenta se pasan las paginas de manera vertiginosa.

Ahora si, y advirtiendo debidamente: voy a hacer un SPOILER.

De verdad trabajo durante todo el libro en el caso Black, LO GANO, le otorgaron cincuenta millones de dólares... y el tipo NO VIO UN SOPE?!
Se queda con la chica, inicia una nueva vida, blah blah... Pero no ejerce mas?! El genio de Rudy Baylor, la nueva leyenda de Memphis, deja que caduque su colegiatura y se va con míseros dos-mil ochocientos dólares?!
Inaudito.

Didn’t think a book covering a bad faith insurance trial could keep me so entertained..but it did! First book of 2025 complete!

A young upstart lawyer fresh out of Law School makes litigation history in the state of Tennessee. Awesome courtroom shenanigans from the master of legal thrillers. A very interesting and fast read, recommended.

EXCELLENT STORY, EXCELLENTCHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. I believe I read this book a long time ago but did not add it to my list so I revisited the rainmaker. I enjoyed Rudy Baler the young attorney who has met Mrs. Black a woman who son has leukemia and has been denied a bone marrow transplant by her insurance company because he had a,preexisting condition. ( he had the flu 5 years prior to his mother contracting for the insurance)
if you haven't read the Rainmaker and enjoy a good story don't hesitate go buy the book.

90./91. gads ASV, kāda jurista (sākumā vēl studenta) gads no dzīves. Absolvējot augstskolu viņam nepaveicās ar darba meklējumiem un sanāk uzsākt patstāvīgu jurista praksi. Pēdējā semestra beigās students iegūst lietu pret lielu apdrošināšanas uzņēmumu. Cīņa pret uzņēmumu viena gada ilgumā ienes kārtīgas pārmaiņas tiesu praksē Memfisā un līdz ar to arī citos štatos, kurā darbojas šī korporācija.
Bija pāris aizraujošu vakaru un autors nelika vilties.

I need all my friends to read this book so they can understand exactly how unhinged Memphis, Tennessee is, and why growing up here produces such feral little raccoons like yours truly. :-P This story may be billed as a "legal drama" or "legal thriller," but trust me when I say everything that happens here WOULD REALLY HAPPEN IN MEMPHIS. No exaggeration, just cold sober realism.

Also, if I took a shot every time the strip clubs down by the airport were mentioned, I'd have passed out almost immediately. You don't have to show off your street cred to me, John! I know there are strip joints down by the airport! I used to drive by them every day on my way to work!

Honestly, though, this is such a rich, layered book. Part courtroom drama, part slice-of-life story, part larger-than-life myth. Even the title hints at the mythic quality of the hero, a grubby young law school graduate who somehow manages to shake the trees and make money rain down. Like a shaman summoning the living waters...

There are flaws here, certainly--dropped plot threads, an arson attack in the first few chapters that's never explained or solved (???), a rushed-feeling climax, and a somewhat iffy romance between our lawyer hero and a victim of domestic violence. Methinks some ethical lines were crossed. At the same time, this was the early '90s, and I can see that An Attempt Was Made to treat the subject of domestic violence and assault in a sensitive manner. Not entirely successful imo, but still. The attempt was made. And even if I felt the ending was rushed, I love it for its openness and hope <3

This has been the best of the Grisham books so far.

One of my favourite Grisham books. Great drama in the courtroom as Rudy Baylor, novice lawyer sues established, wealthy insurance company Great Benefit. Their crime? Repeatedly denying the claim of a terminally ill young man apparently just because they could...or so they thought.

This book really brings out some important lessons; that in the end, big dreams of wealth, success and power usually end up as just that--dreams! Those that do make it often find that the end result is not what they were seeking so they end up striving for more, and more, and more.....and so it goes on. I think it was Jim Carey who said that he wished everyone could be rich and famous so that then they would realise it wasn't the answer....I love the end of this novel as Baylor realises what's really important to him.

There is some swearing in this book and some violence which in places is quite graphic. There is also a domestic violence storyline and some mild sexual innuendo.

Check out my John Grisham Shelf!

Me gustó bastante conocer a Rudy, este estudiante de derecho a punto de ejercer, al que le caen en sus manos un par de casos bastante jugosos, por un lado una viuda millonaria y por otro la estafa de una aseguradora. El principio es divertido ya que le pasa de todo a este hombre, pero después las cosas van tomando su ritmo jurídico y no me perdí mucho en la juega porque he leído más sobre el género, pero sí que habrá juerga de abogados como para sentirse uno, por momentos se volvía tenso pero me agradó que el autor no se alargue en temas que no interesan, y el final ha sido genial, se cierra el caso, el cual es muy divertido, como un partido de tenis súper intenso, y el final final donde no esperaba la dirección que tomarían las cosas, así que en sí me agradó bastante.