John Grisham's 'the Firm' was what really got into reading novels over 300 pages. The story gripped me and got me over my fear of so many pages. So, I kept reading John's first 8 books or so as they were published.

I remember reading this in 1995 and loving the tough as nails lawyer of Reggie. I appreciated how she called people by their first names when they weren't used to it to level the playing field. She helps a kid in a tough situation. John has a gift for making the law exciting and dramatic.

I saw the movie and thought that Susan Sarandon was perfect in the movie. John was really on a hot streak here and it catapulted him into the big leagues. I stopped reading him after a while, but I suspect he is still an very entertaining read. I did read the Camino series 1st book about a book seller and that was a whole lot of fun.

I used to own all of these 8 book in hardback and some even were signed by Grisham. He is the only book signing I've been too and it was in my home town in 1994 at a mall when a mall still had bookstores in them. When I moved to Baltimore, I donated my Grisham books to the library so I no longer have any copies.

If you are looking for a quick legal thriller or a page turning book, this would be a good one, but I would start with the Firm, next, the Pelican Brief and then this one.

This was my first John Grisham novel. It won't be the last since I've heard a few good things about The Testament, but that one might be my last if there isn't some improvement on a few things.

I have to compare this one to the movie a bit since that flick is a fave, and I think this is one of the rare cases where I like the movie better than the book. The character of Reverend Roy Foltrigg was much different in the book, much more obnoxious, much dumber, and just doesn't stand up to the awesomeness that is Tommy Lee Jones in the movie. The movie seemed to merge a few characters from the book into the movie Foltrigg, actually. It's like Grisham took the stereotype of the conservative blowhard, and that was it for Foltrigg. Foltrigg wasn't the only character that lacked depth, though. Two-dimensional characters was the order of the day for a lot of the secondary characters, and only a couple of the minor ones went through any character development by the end of the book. Several weren't all that believable at all.

But that's not the case for the main characters. Mark Sway was rather awesome, and so was Reggie Love. As for Judge Harry Roosevelt, who is underplayed in the movie, he was frocking kick-a in the novel. What's even better is that all three were believable and didn't completely fit one particular mold like other characters.

As for writing style: eh... He seems to get a bit preachy about things, and goes out of his way to make certain 2-D characters look even shallower, especially Foltrigg. He kind of writes in the third person with a character's point of view, but that character can change at any instant, sometimes in the middle of a sentence, and it gets rather confusing at times. At one moment you're at a table in a restaurant listening to two guys talk, getting one of those guys' thoughts, and occasionally the other guy's thoughts as well (confusing enough), and with the very next sentence a waiter in the kitchen is saying something completely unrelated to the conversation going on at the table in the dining area. This was not an isolated incident, and thus the action was sometimes hard to follow. In fact, it was such a distraction throughout the book that I wanted to give it two stars.

So, what gave this book an extra star from me? The story itself! Style and character deficiencies aside, this man knows how to put together a good bundle of yarn; he's just not the most adept at spinning it. Having looked at a couple other reviews of this book, I've noticed some others have pointed out one major gaping plot hole: Why didn't Reggie suggest an anonymous phone call from someone to the FBI? It wouldn't even have to be Mark or made in Memphis. It's a very simple and common idea and could've been suggested when Mark and Reggie first met before the mob started threatening Mark. Even if it had been brought up and shot down for some reason, any reason, it would've been better than not exploring it at all in the lawyer's office at the first meeting. Or maybe it was mentioned in a throw-away sentence, and I missed it? At any rate, that bothered me. Of course, if that had occurred, then 300 pages would've been shaved off the book, and the story would be very boring indeed.

Another nit-pick: As for denouement, well, aside from the very main plot point, there isn't any, and even the one for the main plot is kind of loose. I'd like to know whether or not Foltrigg had his ass handed to him by Harry, and what happened to Barry. In the movie, you can infer pretty easily what happens to him, but in the book it's not even remotely explored. Also, does the mob want to pursue the Sways, or are they just going to cut their losses (and get rid of Barry the Blunderer) and leave that whole thing alone? And most importantly, was Detective Klickman able to eat all those pizzas and Chinese food lunches he didn't order? I guess we'll never know.

Holy shit, this was intense... I found this book by accident, I already knew John Grisham from the "Theo Boone" Books but this was my first novell from him. And I'm impressed as fuck! It's so hard for me to calm because this book caused so much emotions in me, it made me think so much, basically all the time. I couldn't put it down. Actually I really want to re-read it - even though I just finished it. Lately I'm really not in a reading mood but this book defenitly put me back into it!
I love crime and lawyer stories and this is a very specific one. It was exciting from the first page, Grisham's writing is very fluent and easy to read, yet I felt most of the time like he's playing with me(or my nerves). This book seriously scared the shit out of me sometimes. It had this threatening kind of thrill, excitment. Genious!
And like all fantastic books, "The Client" needs to have a weaksness as well: The ending.
The end was good, don't get this wrong. I get along with it and I also think that it was logical but it was pretty predictable and the last "thing", you know THAT thing at the end to crown the story, was missing. What a shame, but I enjoyed this book anyway and I'll definitly re-read it soon and read more from John Grisham.


(School) Grade: Com'mon! I won't be like that and give it the best one, 1!