It was a really good book. If you love mystery, you should definitely read this book. When you finish a chapter you will be curious about the next chapter. That means the book is suspenseful. The book is going to finish with a different end which you can't guess.

Review of unabridged audiobook version narrated by John MacDonald, 1993, Books on Tape

Mark Sway is an 11-year-old boy who lives with his impoverished 30-year-old, divorced mother, Dianne, and 8-year-old brother, Ricky, in a run-down trailer park in Memphis. His entire life changes in the most dangerous possible way when he tries to prevent a depressed lawyer, Jerome Clifford, from committing suicide. Mark and Ricky have sneaked off to smoke cigarettes in the woods near their home, when they witness Clifford trying to kill himself by piping the carbon monoxide from exhaust fumes into his car. While attempting to remove the rubber hose blocking off the car’s tail pipe, Mark is caught by Clifford, who roughly grabs and slaps Mark and forces him into the car. He tells Mark that he has two choices, die peacefully with him from the fumes, or be shot in the head with Clifford’s pistol. During this ordeal, Clifford, who is stoned on booze and pills, babbles out the fact that he is killing himself before he can be murdered in a much more barbaric manner by one of his most terrifying mob clients, Barry, “the Blade,” Muldanno. Barry has assassinated a U.S. Senator, regrets that he impulsively revealed to Clifford the location where he stashed the Senator’s body, and plans to rectify his mistake by silencing Clifford.

Mark manages to escape moments before Clifford shoots himself, which both he and Ricky witness, but his troubles have just begun. Ricky becomes catatonic from post-traumatic stress and has to be hospitalized. And before very long, Mark is under threat from hired thugs associated with Barry the Blade, as well as a set of ruthless FBI officers and the United States Attorney in New Orleans, Roy Foltrigg. All of these antagonists firmly (and correctly) believe that Mark knows where the Senator's body is buried. Barry wants to save himself from a murder rap. The FBI agents are under massive pressure from the Director of the FBI to get this case resolved ASAP. And Foltrigg mainly hopes to grab credit and headlines for solving the most high profile case of his lifetime in order to advance his political ambitions. As a result, the FBI agents and Foltrigg are determined to force Mark to testify, regardless of the mob threat to his life and that of his mother and younger brother. Mark’s only hope to protect himself and his family is to become the pro bono client of Reggie Love, a 52-year-old, recovering alcoholic, female attorney who has only been practicing law for four years.

Mark Sway is clearly an intellectually and emotionally gifted child, who is mature beyond his years to a remarkable degree. I personally found his precocity well motivated. As the eldest child of a brutal, alcoholic father, he has been the protector of his mother and younger brother since age six, a situation which tends to make any child old before his time. Knowing these facts, and seeing Mark in action, as a brave and compassionate human being, it is easy to admire and empathize with him.

Reggie Love has been through hell in her own life as well. She experienced a terrible divorce from a horrendously vindictive husband that beggared her, estranged her from her two children, and resulted in overwhelming struggles with depression and alcoholism. Fortunately, she came out on the other side, made stronger by a personal mission to save abused women and children as much as possible from the kind of suffering at the hands of the legal system that she herself endured. Thus, it is quite believable to me that she becomes very attached to Mark, and is willing to go all out to rescue him from a horrendously dangerous situation where he is, literally, facing a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” type of dilemma.

This book, like most thrillers, whether legal, medical or political, is written from omniscient point of view, which involves the author, throughout the book, slipping into the thoughts of innumerable characters besides the main character, Mark. I normally read novels with only one or two points of view, so it was a bit disconcerting at first getting used to all the head hopping, especially being forced to wade through the evil thoughts of the villains. What held me interested in the story in spite of this factor is the most significant relationship in the book, that of Mark and Reggie.

For my taste, the most compelling popular fiction, regardless of genre, is character driven and involves a love story. It can be horizontal (a co-equal relationship based on romance or a “buddy” relationship) or vertical (a top-down relationship between a parent and child, mentor and mentee, teacher and student, protector and protected one, etc.). Or it can be a combination of the two. In this case, the love relationship is between Reggie, the fierce defender of embattled children, and Mark, the brave, determined child she is rescuing. In addition, as young as he is, Mark also has a top-down, vertical relationship with both his mother and his brother, and his main goal in this story is to keep them safe at all costs. Mark and Reggie are both what I call Positive Warriors, heroic characters who get into trouble because they are honorable, compassionate and brave, which makes them the most sympathetic type of protagonists possible in any kind of popular fiction.

There are also three subcharacters in the book who are particularly well drawn and sympathetic: Reggie’s 80-year-old mother, Momma Love; Judge Henry Roosevelt of the Memphis juvenile court, and Clint Von Hooser, Reggie’s personal assistant.

I saw the 1994 movie made of this book years ago, which stars Susan Sarandon as Reggie, Brad Renfro as Mark, Ossie Davis as Judge Roosevelt, and Tommy Lee Jones as Roy Foltrigg. Foltrigg is played much more sympathetically in the movie than in the book, where he is a narcissistic jerk. In the movie his character is conflated with another more positive character, no doubt for brevity’s sake, and that combined with Tommy Lee Jones’s charisma as an actor transforms him from a buffoonish, minor villain into a worthy opponent for Reggie.

This book was first published in 1993, and I was fortunate enough to borrow from a friend the CD’s for the audiobook version from that same year, which is narrated by the extremely talented John MacDonald. Unhappily, that version is very hard to find these days. All that seems to be listed on Audible’s website is an abridged version. John MacDonald's narration wonderfully brings each character to life. He capably handles regional accents and characters of all ages and both genders, most especially the high-pitched, strained voice of eight-year-old Ricky, the strong tenor of 11-year-old Mark, the deep, resonant baritone of Judge Roosevelt, all the various male FBI agents, and the female voices of Reggie and Momma Love and several minor, female characters.

I rate this book as follows:

Hero: 5 stars
Heroine: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Thriller Plot: 4 stars
Love Relationship Plot: 5 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Audiobook Narration: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars

After a very long time, I read a crime-suspense novel. It didn't meet my expectations. I think the plot is over-streched and taking an eleven year old boy as a smart hero who got all his talent by watching movies seems somewhat unbelievable. The author could take a teenager on his place. The end of the novel makes you fool asking the question, "why did I waste so much time?"

The main character has become an annoying brat. he acts like an asshole and is not sympathetic or relatable at all. It makes me root for the mafia to kill him.

Takie 3.75 bo ogólnie mi się podobało, przyjemna rozrywka, ale Mark trochę zbyt dojrzały jak na swój wiek uważam, no i trochę się ciągnęło.
Ofc Reggie Love wygrywa wszystko

I really like this movie and watched it before I'd ever read the book. But I remembered that this was one of the few cases where I liked both the book and the movie even where they didn't match up. I don't know that I'll read it again ever though because I did like the movie better this time around. I liked that there were just the three primary characters, for instance. And I admit that I liked that Foltrigg (while still being a loud mouth) wasn't quite the moron he is in the book-- but I'm sure that's because Tommy Lee Jones played him and wasn't willing to be such an idiot. And I'm okay with that. From the book, I liked that Dianne and Reggie seem to have a better relationship. I also love that the employer sends her flowers. I was annoyed, though, about the random court reporter and her skirt. Sometimes the sex junk-- totally irrelevant to the story-- annoys me a lot and this time it did especially. So the story is great, high-speed, likeable characters, good background, but then you just gotta go throw in a little trash to sell more. Yeah, annoyed me. I admit it. So, like the story and really like Mark, Reggie, and Dianne, but it will be a long time before I read it again.

It was okay. Too long and slow. There are better Grisham books.

Fantastic legal thriller from Grisham.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would.

John Grisham oa hlanya. why is it always the mafia? idk still enjoyed it. I think I liked the firm more though. will eventually read more Grisham bc some other pcv from years ago left a hefty collection behind.

An odd book. So unsuspenseful, so bland. No courtroom drama. There aren't even any interesting legal issues involved. An 11-year-old boy (wise beyond his years) and his quinquagenarian lawyer (who is strangely referred to as "cute" several times, once by the boy) spend the whole book trying to avoid having him reveal to the legal system where a body is buried, information he has come by accidentally. At the end, he reveals where the body is buried, making the whole struggle moot. But the killer's punishment is unaddressed, just left for us to assume. None of this would be unforgivably objectionable except that the book at 482 pages is about 200 pages too long. It's not badly written, just too much words.

An enjoyable read from John Grisham. I had only seen the movie, and around 15 years ago, so the book was pretty fresh to me. Very suspensful, even though the story is basic and not over the top. Basically a young kid witnesses a suicide and can't talk about it because of the fear of the Mafia. Although he is scared to talk, the FBI feels as if the young kid is not revealing useful information to their case. So it's a Catch-22 we've seen a million times. If he talks, he's screwed. If he doesn't talk he's screwed. Simple, but it works. Recommend for any John Grisham fan and someone that likes a good thriller concerning the law.