The Client

Starred ReviewFans 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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved